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The Dominant Force in Your Life 0:01 Welcome to the men's global livestream. If you have a bible, I want you to hold a couple of spots that we'll be referring to in today's study. 1 in Matthew chapter 10 and the other in Proverbs0:12 chapter 19. If you're joining us for the first time, we're in part 2 of a series we're calling dominant force. Okay? And let me, by0:24 review, if you're joining us for the first time, just kinda review what we covered in part 1 where we laid kind of the basis and the foundation for this series by defining clearly0:36 what a dominant force is, how that relates to you and me personally, and the implications of that in our relationship with God. A dominating force is simply someone or something that is more0:48 powerful and has more influence on you than other forces or influences. Right? Now in the space1:00 called your life, God declares in his word that he desires to be the most powerful and the most influential force in your1:12 life. More than people, more than culture, more than feelings, more than fear, God wants to be the dominant force in your life. Now why is that important1:25 as a Christ follower? Well, first of all and most fundamentally, whatever is the dominant force in your life becomes the axis. Alright? The pivot point for your self1:36 perception. Alright? And how you think about yourself and your self perception, how you think about yourself, your identity, what's true about you, then drives1:49 your energy and leads to an expression. Okay? So very, very important to discern and to decide what's going to be the dominant force in my life. Why?2:00 Because whatever that force inside is, it's gonna train you on how to think about yourself. Secondly, when you're trained how to think about yourself, okay,2:13 how you think about yourself now informs and pervades every dimension of your life, your relationships, others, purpose, meaning, service,2:25 or not. Okay? So very, very important to know why that inner dominant force that's driving you to be you,2:37 is the Lord. Now we all know that there's a battle, going on for control within. Turn on the news. I mean, what makes news2:49 is people who've who've lost a a battle for control to something negative. Or on the other hand, it's so3:01 cool to see a story that inside of them, something positive is is in control. We see death and life. Right? We see heroes and villains.3:13 Where's that all come from? It comes from what force wins the battle within. And in part 1, we learn the basis for surrendering to3:24 God as the dominant force of our lives intellectually and experientially. Intellectually, it makes sense because he's our creator. Okay? Which3:36 means he's wiser, which means when it comes to, well, everything, we should surrender to him because he's smarter and he has our best interest in mind. But3:48 then, experientially, not just intellectually, but experientially, it makes sense too to surrender to god and have him be the dominant force in your life. Why? Because the Bible says that when the4:00 kindness of God, our savior appeared, we experienced kindness. We experienced his mercy. We4:11 experienced his love, and we experienced his grace in his person and in his work on our behalf. So it's not just4:23 an intellectual thing. Yeah. God's smarter. He's more powerful. I should surrender and make him the dominant force in my life. No. There's actually an experience with Christ himself personally as a believer, where you4:34 are on the receiving end of supernatural kindness, supernatural mercy, supernatural love, and supernatural grace, which disposes you to go,4:46 I'm surrendering my life and control of my life to him. Okay? Now in part 1, we asked, so is God an accessory4:58 in your life? Just 1 of many forces, or is he everything? Is he the dominant force in your life? Does he have primary influence, primary control,5:10 primary authority? Or does he have secondary or tertiary? Control, influence, and authority. See, just 1 among5:22 many things that influence you and make you who you are. So we laid down the basis in the foundation. Today and for the next 4 sessions, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna explore 45:34 powerful reasons Jesus gave to his men to keep him the most influential force in their lives and to get us thinking in the right direction5:46 for this study and the ones to come is I want you to think about expectations in relationships. Okay? Expectations in relationships.5:57 Alright? All of us have relationships. All of us have expectations for those relationships. And expectations in relationships are either,6:09 a, the unseen killer in the relationship, or they're a positive connector. You're like, what do you mean, Kenny? Well, if you have unknown or unverbalized and differing6:21 expectations in a relationship, k, they're unknown and they're uncommunicated. Okay? But you have those expectations. That litters6:33 literally litters a relationship with a couple of things. Misinterpretations and misunderstandings. Wait, 3 things. And massive frustration because misinterpretations in6:44 relationships, misunderstanding in relationships, because of differing expectations always results in massive frustrations in that relationship. Now, when someone says or if6:56 you've ever heard a buddy say, you know, this relationship shouldn't it shouldn't be so hard when referring to someone they're connected to. You know what they're really saying? They're really saying,7:08 I had different expectations for what this relationship would be like. Now, let's flip it. Clear and communicated. Alright? Operative words.7:20 Clear expectations and communicated expectations, on the other hand, are very liberating and very empowering and very positive, right, for any relationships.7:32 Why? Because you know what to expect. Okay? No surprises. Can I get a hallelujah on that 1? Right? I mean, guys, come on. You know,7:44 like, if you're in relationship with someone, a wife maybe, and you have uncommunicated and unverbalized and unclear expectations, guess what?7:56 That means that your floor of the relationship is a bunch of eggshells because you're you're guessing. Right? You're not connecting, but communicated expectations. Alright?8:09 Do a couple of powerful things. Number 1, they eliminate guessing. Right? You don't have to guess anymore. And then number 2, it fosters connecting in meaningful ways.8:21 Keyword, meaningful ways. Right? When I know the expectation of the other person that I love, that I'm interested in growing a relationship with, and I I know what their expectations are,8:33 then I can work to satisfy those expectations and move the relationship forward versus what? Not communicate them and keep the relationship frustrated and stagnant. Okay? Now, let me build a bridge. Right?8:45 In your relationship with god, he has crystal clear expectations for it. Right? And he pulls8:57 no punches, and that's what we're we're reading about in this series. He is very clear. He's like, I wanna be number 1 in your life. I wanna be the most powerful and the9:09 most influential force in your life, period. End of story. Right? Now how can he make9:21 such a bold ask? And that's really where I wanna get to in this conversation in Matthew 10 with with the disciples because he he's gonna ask them to do some9:32 stuff, Okay? Which is gonna go against the grain and foster this battle within over who's got control, who has influence,9:44 and who has authority in their lives. Right? And Jesus, to start off with, in this discussion in Matthew 10, he he talks9:56 about how hey. Listen. If if there's some certain future realities right? I'm telling you, there's some certain future realities that are coming out here that should10:09 shape your present energy down here. Right? And that's how we're gonna start dominant force part 2. If you have the downloaded notes, okay, look10:20 at the verse at the top which is Proverbs 19 21. We're gonna read it together. It says this, we humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God's10:32 purpose prevails. Right? What do you have there? In God's word, you see juxtaposed next to each other what it means to be a human being, alright, which is a free moral agent,10:44 intellect, emotions, will. Right? You got a choice. You're not a robot, okay, who just does what it's programmed to do. You're a free moral agent. So10:56 humans are always being given options. I mean, shoot. In today's digital jungle. Talk about options.11:08 Right? So humans are given options, and they're brainstorming options and plans. And then there's that word. Alright? So juxtaposed next to us, and we have all these options is11:22 but God's purpose prevails. Okay. So there's our options, and 1 of our options is God's purpose. And11:34 our plans and options, they may or may not work out, but God's word says, God's God's purpose, that's what prevails. So11:46 it's sorta like you got options and you can choose your flesh. You can choose culture as your primary influence. You can you can let the devil11:59 through culture in your flesh control, influence, guide, or you could choose God. But these purposes over here, they don't12:11 prevail in the end. Right? God, on the other hand, and his purposes, the certain future reality is is that they prevail. Alright? Now,12:23 there's a guy in the Bible. I love his story. His name is King Solomon. And he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, and he's stuck between the 2. Okay? He's exploring options in the world and with his12:34 flesh, and then he's got god. Right? And he is giving full vent, okay, to his flesh over here. He's he's gonna run an12:46 experiment. Alright? And so he runs the experiment and he goes full flesh, full self, full self importance, full self satisfaction, full12:58 self gratification. I'm gonna do what I wanna do, how much I'm gonna do it, however I wanna do it. Alright? I'm gonna be the dominant force in my life, And13:10 then he comes to a conclusion. And we hear that conclusion at the end of this book of experimentation. The pearl that comes out of this great test in Ecclesiastes13:22 chapter 12. He says this, the last and final word is this, fear God. Do what he tells you and that's it. Eventually,13:33 God will bring everything that we do out in the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it's good or evil. Wow. Okay.13:46 So God includes someone just like you and me, someone who's got a lot of options, someone who's in a battle within for what will be the dominant13:58 force that has the most power and the most influence. K? He runs the experiment, and he lives to tell the result. And so we're getting the benefit of a man's hindsight14:10 so that you and I can have foresight. Right? He's experienced it, and now he's dropping the pearl. Alright? Which is precious. And the precious pearl14:22 is this, the last and final word is fear God. Let him be the dominant force in your life. What's it look14:34 like? Do what he tells you, and that's it. Why? Because there's a certain future reality that's going to happen, which is14:46 he's gonna expose and judge, right, the basis for what we allowed to control our lives. He's gonna lay it in an open, and he's gonna judge14:58 it. Not according to its intent that we convince ourselves of, but the hidden intent. Right? Whether it's good or evil. Wow. Okay.Christlikeness: The Process of Transformation 15:09 So there's a certain future reality. Solomon's run the experiment, and man, he's pivoting. He's like, Here's the pearl, fellas. And and God put it in his word for15:21 us to read and see and learn from and make decisions out of, which is fear God, do what he tells you. That's it. Right? Make him the dominant15:33 force in your life. So let's make a few observations out of these scriptures, Proverbs 19 and Ecclesiastes 12. Number 1, I have options personally. Write that down. Okay. Your God created you in his15:45 image. Intellect, emotions, will, you're a free moral agent. You're not a robot. You have options personally. Number 2. Alright? Well, you you and I have options personally.15:56 He prevails ultimately. Write that down. Yeah. You got options. But only 1 set of purposes prevailed. Right? That's what it said in Proverbs 19. But16:08 Okay. We got options. But God's purpose prevails. Number 3, I surrender presently. So I have options, but because I know that God's purposes prevail16:20 ultimately, I surrender presently. Right? That's why Solomon says, fear God and do what he tells you now, not later. Right? You16:32 know, for and and and to the God who who prevails ultimately in the end. That's what Solomon's trying to get across. It's like, fear god, do what he says, because in the end,16:43 he prevails. Okay? And then number 4, if I if I'm smart and and do what the Bible says to do, which is to let god be the dominant16:55 force in my life. Right? To to surrender to the 1 who prevails ultimately in the present, he rewards me, write this down, eternally. So in return for our17:07 surrender to our maker and our savior, your faithfulness to his person, to his17:19 presence, and to his plan, Jesus says, gets rewarded. Alright. Let's read about that. In Matthew 25 says this, now after a long time, the master of those17:30 slaves came and settled accounts with them. The 1 who had received the 5 talents came up and brought 5 more talents saying, master, you entrusted 5 talents to me. See, I have17:42 gained 5 more talents. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in17:54 charge of many things. Enter in to the joy of your master. Now, you got 2 characters. Right? You have the slave entrusted with the stewardship18:07 of resources. Okay? You have the master, right, who is gone but who returns. Right? And so the slave, while the18:19 master is gone, knowing that the certain future reality of his return to his space, right, that slave then18:32 is faithful. He lets the certain reality of the future, right, be the dominating force in his life. And so what does that look like? Oh, he multiplies. He's a18:43 good steward of the resources that the master entrusted to him. Okay? So when he knows that's gonna happen and he knows that the will of18:55 his master is gonna prevail, that drives him in the presence to let that certain reality, that future reality be the driving force, be the dominant force, be the most19:07 powerful influence over his thinking and over his behavior. So since God prevails, alright, what's our response? Write this down. I live with the19:18 end in mind. You wanna know if God's the dominating force in your life? All you have to do is compare your life to this fact. I live with19:30 the end in mind. I know there's a certain future reality. I know the master has entrusted me with things. I know that I have limited time and unknown ending in a scheduled meeting19:42 with the master. Therefore, that certain future reality and his will going to is going to prevail in that moment of that future reality, I'm gonna let him be the19:54 dominant force. Now, on your notes, I put the definition of prevail. Okay. It's a verb. It means to prove more powerful than opposing forces, to be victorious. Okay. So what20:06 we're saying here just to again, kinda help us surrender to God being the dominant force in our life is that since God proves more powerful20:18 in the end, right? And since God will be victorious above all, in the end, we live with the n20:31 in mind. That's what smart men do. So now, let's look in Matthew 10 at the first thing, Jesus says, will prevail that will happen to20:42 you as an authentic follower. Right? And he says, Christ likeness will prevail. And I want you to listen to this conversation,20:54 on discipleship with his men. Pay very close attention because if you're a believer, you and I are his disciple. He says this to his disciples, his students. Students are not greater than their teacher,21:07 and slaves are not greater than their master. Students are to be like their teacher, and slaves are to be like their master. And since I, the master21:19 of the household, have been called the prince of demons, the members of my household will be called by even worse names. I want you to pay21:31 attention to Jesus's juxtaposition of the student and the teacher, the slave, and the master. And the process21:43 as they are in relationship. Right? Students are to be like their teacher. Slaves are to be like, their master. So you see that the process of knowing21:56 Jesus, our master. Right? Knowing Jesus, our teacher, is that we become like him. We can't become him perfectly, but we can become like him,22:08 and that's god's process in the relationship. So there's a relationship between teacher and student. There's a relationship between, between master and slave. There's relationship between the savior and the saved.22:19 Right? The vine and the branch, the potter and the clay, the shepherd and the sheep. And and there's a process in that relationship, and it's we're now being formed and transformed and22:31 conformed into his likeness. So when I say Christ likeness prevails for the authentic believer, that means there's a dominant22:43 resemblance to Jesus in the life of the authentic believer, right, versus the synthetic believer, and there's a dominant experience, right, in the22:55 life of the authentic versus synthetic believer that mirrors Christ. Alright? And so that's what we wanna look at now. Right? We wanna look at23:06 4 transformations, for every believer that that that move us from kinda synthetic to authentic23:18 follower believer that shows that we're becoming like Jesus. Number 1, Jesus dies for sin. I die23:30 to sin. You know, when the Bible talks about how we are in Christ and how we are baptized into Christ, it's a picture of having, like, a white t shirt and purple dye.23:42 Right? And just imagine, you know, lowering the white t shirt into the purple dye and letting it sit there. Right? And then23:54 pulling that after a day or 2, that that white formerly white purple shirt out of the purple dye. What color is the white shirt? Well, it's not white anymore. Right? Because the24:06 cloth that is immersed in the dye, the dye has now the character of the dye, the color of the dye has now pervaded24:19 the substance of the cloth. It's transformed. It's no longer white. It's purple. That's the picture of when you begin a relationship with God. It says you're baptized24:31 into Christ. And our old life, our old color, our old nature, our old ways, our old thinking, now it's a process of Jesus immersing ourselves24:43 in him. And as we're in Christ, his character begins to color our character and begin his conduct begins to24:55 color our conduct. And so that's the spirit behind what the apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 6. He says this, we know that our25:07 old sinful selves, the white T shirt, were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with25:18 Christ, we were set free from the power of sin. So Jesus dies for sin. We come into relationship with Jesus. We25:30 die to sin. What does that mean? Means there's just a loss of power. That's what Paul says. Our old simple selves were crucified with Christ. It means that we're identified now with25:42 Jesus' crucifixion. We're crucified with Christ. And what does that mean? Loss of power. Sin is no longer the dominant influence in my in my life anymore. Now, can I25:54 sin? Sure. It's just no longer the dominant influence. Right? It's not the dominant controlling factor. Okay? And I think a lot of26:06 us can identify with that. You know, the before and the after. You know, the before Christ, after Christ, and then the ongoing battle. Right? Today, that that rages.26:17 Okay? Where now, God's pushing us. He's pushing more sin out of our life. He's he's getting into the smaller crevices and spaces. Maybe the big ones fell off26:29 quick, and now it's about your thought life. Now it's about your private life. Now it's not about your image or what you're doing, your activities, your church attendance, your bible study. It's your26:41 thought life. It's the inner life. It's your inner attitudes. It's it's how you're thinking, what you're letting into your mind, that type of thing. So if26:53 Christ likeness prevails and we are authentic versus synthetic believers, We'll become like Jesus. What what does that mean? Number 1, Jesus dies for sin. We die to27:05 sin. Okay? Number 2, Jesus comes alive physically. I come alive spiritually. Again, remember that image. The shirt goes into27:17 the dye and starts taking on the color. We come into Christ and now, we begin to take on his character and his experiences. So,27:28 Jesus dies for sin. We die to sin. Jesus comes alive physically on Earth. We come alive spiritually on Earth. He comes alive on Earth for god's purposes.27:41 We come alive for god's purposes on Earth. Look what it says in Romans chapter 6 verses 10 11. When he died, he died27:52 once to break the power of sin. We just talked about But now that he lives, okay, transition, he lives for the glory of god. So you also should28:04 consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Okay. What does that look like? Alright. I just28:16 remember in my own story. Man, I remember when I met Jesus and I internalized for myself who he was,28:28 that he was God. I internalized for myself that he that he lived a life and that he died a death for me28:40 and that he rose again, came alive to god and is living for god. When I just kind of got that and then just kinda made the connection, this is Jesus. Jesus is28:51 me. This is me. Okay. Jesus dies for sin. I die too sin. Jesus comes alive physically29:03 and spiritually for god on earth. Guess what? I come alive spiritually for god on earth. What does that look like to come alive to god? It means we come alive to his purposes29:15 over our purposes. Right? We come alive to his abiding, dominant presence. Right? We come alive to29:27 his plan and seeking it and asking for it to be done in in our lives. And so you see that Christ likeness in the authentic believer29:39 versus the synthetic believer prevails. What does that look like? A dominant resemblance to Christ in his character and in his experience. Right? Third aspect29:51 of that is this, Jesus sits in full power and I have full access, parenthetically, to that same power.Show more In this video 0:00 The Dominant Force in Your Life15:00 Christlikeness: The Process of Transformation30:00 Suffering and Glory: The Path to Christlikeness45:00 Surrendering to God's Prevailing Purpose
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