The Key To A Life Of Power (Part 1)

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Live. I need some folks to communicate with me, make sure our sound and our quality is all okay as I continue. I apologize. I started a broadcast earlier and it did not take. I'm going to have to go back and delete those and repost this one.

So let me start all over again. For those of you who are just tuning in, we started this whole series of communicating on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We're going through the teaching materials that we've developed at On Target Institute over the last 20-25 years. I began by telling you that the centerpiece of everything we do is helping men, in this case, discover the answers to the two most important questions in life. How am I wired uniquely and why am I here?

What is my purpose? I talk to you about what I've discovered are the five keys to unlock a man's true potential. Release, resistance, relationship, revelation and response. We have just been going through for the last number of sessions the whole idea of release. That has to do with letting go of the past, dealing with fear, anger, unforgiveness, guilt, shame, all of those sorts of things.

The last couple of sessions we were dealing with the Father Wound, Part 1 and Part 2 with my friend Dr. Clarence Schuller. By the way, for those of you tuning in who have not been able to view any of those sessions, they're still on our archive. You can scroll down if you're on our Facebook public page right now, scroll down that they are there. If you're not already someone who gets notifications, just like that page and you'll be part of our group.

Also, if you're watching this right now on our YouTube channel, you can go ahead and just hit subscribe and you'll be able to subscribe to the channel and get notifications that way as well. Also, I want to encourage you that I've never really in all of the time we've been doing this, never bothered to ask anybody to help us financially. I'm not really very good at this. My board keeps getting on my case. They say, Dachy, you need to ask for money every now and then.

I don't like doing that, but I think I should. If you would like to help us in some way, all you have to do is go to otm.co, otm for ontargetministries.co and right on that first page there's a donate button. No amount is too small. You can use a one-time gift or an ongoing monthly gift if you want. Having said that, let me just say this.

We do not accept any money that's coming out of your tithe. Your tithe does not belong to guys like me or ministries like mine. It belongs to your local church. If you come to a place where you feel as though you have a little extra resource you want to share to help another ministry, that's fine, but please make sure you're tithing to your local church. Back to what we're talking about.

Letting go of the past is one thing. It's one thing to offload all that stuff. It's another thing to learn to live a disciplined, obedient life resisting the temptations of the now so that I don't accumulate more negative baggage to have to let go of. Does that make sense? That's where we're going with this.

Right now we're talking about obedience. The Apollo moonshot, I didn't know if you know this, was off course 95% of the time. Off course. The only way it was able to hit its target is that along the way as it would grift off, mission control would fire off these little things called retro rockets. The retro rocket would move it back to its original course so that it would stay on course and along the way it would have to keep adjusting.

Well, I like to say you and my life are probably off course 95% of the time. I say obedience is the retro rocket for life. Will I fire off that retro rocket and resist pornography, drugs, alcohol, anger, lying, cheating, adultery, stealing, no matter what it might be? God is calling us to obey. In fact, one of the most profound things he calls us to in all the Bible, if you look at Ecclesiastes, which we'll talk about here as we move through this material, that's what Solomon talks about.

The whole duty of man, he says at the end of Ecclesiastes after he's done all this whining is to fear God and obey his commands. Fearing God just simply means being in awe of God, revering God. And then he says obey his commands, obedience. If you're struggling to discover more of God's truth, listen to what Oswald Chambers says. Oswald Chambers says, sometimes God will not reveal more truth about himself until you've obeyed what you already know.

And I thought when I read that, wow man, that's pretty profound. But here's the other thing. God is not concerned with how long your laundry list is of things that you've got to get a hold of in your life and things that you have to obey. What he cares about is that you obey right where you are now. Pick one.

Obey. Move on. God will reveal more and more truth about himself as you do that. Let me just give you some biblical references. Let me start with our warning.

Ecclesiastes 8.8 says this, no man has the power over the wind to contain it so no one has the power over the day of his death. As no one is discharged in time of war, listen, so wickedness will not release those who practice it. You want to practice wickedness and be disobedient, you won't be released. Okay, 1st Thessalonians 4, 3-6. It is God's will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality, that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, okay, who do not know God, and that in this matter, no one should wrong his brother and take advantage of him.

Listen, the Lord will punish men for all such sins as we have already told you and warned you. That's a clear warning, guys. These are some warnings. Luke 11.34, your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light, but when they are bad, your body is also full of darkness.

What are you allowing into your mind? What are the imageries that the world is throwing at you? And by the way, everyone, how many of you know the world is throwing a lot of imagery at us right now, and it's all designed to hook you, to get you to buy that product you didn't need. Go into that website and look at those half-nude men and women and get aroused and all of that. They are pulling you in.

And the scary part today is because of our behavioral patterns and our purchases and what we view on the internet, they also know who you are and they know what your tendencies are and they gear their marketing right toward you. It's almost like it's really hard to have any kind of a chance, and in the flesh, we really don't. Our only chance is with God. We've got to go to God. Now, Matthew 4, 1-11.

Here are some examples. In Matthew 4, 1-11, I want to show you what Jesus did in this area. You all know the story of Jesus in the desert being tempted by the devil. He had been fasting 40 days and 40 nights. I want you to write three words down or commit them to memory as I share this.

Matthew 4, 1-11. Let me read the story. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.

I want you to notice the very first place of temptation for Jesus is hunger. Remember that, hunger. It goes on. Jesus answered him, It is written, Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then it says, The devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

If you were the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Notice the second way the devil tried to tempt Jesus was in the area of pride. Hunger, now he is appealing to his pride. Then Jesus said to him, It is also written, you know what Jesus does by the way, have you noticed that? Every time he gets tempted, he reminds the enemy of the word of God.

By the way, you and I have that same privilege. We can do the same thing anytime we want to. We will talk more about that later. It is also written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Again, the devil took him now, very frustrated probably, to a very high mountain.

Showed him all the kings of the world and their splendor. He says, All this I will give you if you will just bow down and worship me. Come on, you recognize the third area. It is a big one. Greed.

He appealed to Jesus in the area of hunger, pride, and greed. Jesus says this in verse 10, Jesus said to him, Away from me Satan, listen, wherever you are right now, say those words, Away from me Satan, for it is written again, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then, after all this has happened, verse 11, as the result of Jesus being tempted in hunger, pride, and greed and resisting him successfully, the next word is then, which is a transitional word, which means as a result of what was just described, here is what took place. I love this. It says, Then angels came and attended him.

Hey guys, how many of you would like to have angels come and attend to you? Well, here is our model, obey. Obey. Listen, I want to tell you something. I believe there is a profound relationship between obedience and power.

If you want more power in your life, if you want the Holy Spirit to show up in a more dynamic way, it's simple. Obey. Revere God, be in awe of God, worship God, and obey his commands. Take control of those areas in your life that are stopping up God's power from flowing through you. Let me kind of bring this to a conclusion today because we're just setting up the stage for the book about obedience.

I've gone over a few examples of our warning and some examples of what Jesus is calling us to do. Let's talk about our examples. Here's a continuation. Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself in this way. Daniel had access to the royal food and wine, but he would rather obey God, so he resisted his temptation to go to the royal food and wine.

He had moral courage. He was able to say no. Here's another one. 1 Corinthians 9, 24-27. Another translation, by the way, New King James says, by the way, for resolve, he purposed in his heart.

I love that. He purposed in his heart not to defile himself. 1 Corinthians 9, 24-27. Do you not know that in a race all the wonders run to get the prize? Paul goes on to say, I don't do that.

He goes on to say, I beat my body and make it my slave. I say to my body, no, you cannot do that. He says, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. Guys, let me just be honest with you. I can't tell you how many times in my early ministry life that I've been a hypocrite, that I've lived in sin and done things that I know God doesn't want me to do, willfully done them, and stood up and preached to hundreds, sometimes thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of people in arenas and stadiums, and knowing that I'm being disobedient.

Can God still use you in those situations? Probably. Look what he did with David. But I want to tell you something. It grieves God.

And I really believe it stops up the power I am seeing in my own life. The more I take charge of my life, the more I put sin in the background, the more I move forward, the more power that I'm sensing God is flowing through me. Listen, here's another example. Psalm 101, 4 says, Men of perverse heart shall be far from me. I will have nothing to do with evil.

That's the kind of attitude we need to have. So are you resisting the enemy in your life in the area of hunger, pride, and greed? Hunger. Hey, listen, guys, I'm not just talking about hunger for physical food. Although for some of us, we'd probably do well if we stayed away from some physical food.

But I'm telling you, what are you into your mind? What are you letting into your senses? And the world, I mean, all these things are not worth it. What are you watching? When you think no one else is watching, by the way, this is right there.

He's everywhere. God is everywhere. He's next to you. He's seeing everything you do. Okay.

And when it comes to the world, the world is throwing it. Look, the world's throwing all kinds of things at us. Everything look really, really attractive. You know, it's like commercial years and years ago, there were young couples on the beach, you know, three men, three women, and just beautiful. All the guys are muscle bound, you know, and all the women are just wearing these little skimpy bikinis.

They're just actually drop that gorgeous girls, you know, and they're on the beach and it's a beer commercial, you know. And so the guy goes over to the beer cooler and he picks up a beer bottle and it comes out and it's slow motion, man. It's hot. They're all sweating and the dripping, the ice is dripping off and it looks so amazing, man. And they're all enjoying this beer.

Well, listen, I want to tell you something. I used to drink, I used to drink a lot of beer, you know, and I got a scoop for you. I've never seen anybody drinks a lot of beer, looks like that. They don't look like those people. Okay.

But the world says, if you did, it reminds me of the guy driving down the street with his wife, you know, and his wife sees a big billboard with a beautiful woman carrying a six pack of beer, you know, and she says, look at that, honey. The world is trying to tell me that if I drink a six pack of beer, I could look like that. And the guy says, I don't think so, honey. I think what they're trying to say is that if I drink a six pack of beer, you'd look like that. Oh, by the way, by the way, you can't share this stuff with a lot of other people because this could be a little off color.

You know what I mean? Anyway, hunger, pride, our position or station in life, you know, the, you know, wanting to get more, you know, perfectionism, a please everyone mentality, all because I want to move on to that next position or the next station in life. And then greed, very similar greed leads to materialism. And I gotta have a bigger and better car so that I look, look better than my neighbor. And all of this stuff, by the way, leads to incredible compromise if we don't take it under control.

So when your own life in the areas of hunger, pride and greed, make a list and take a look at the you may be succumbing to that you have control over. Finally, Colossians two to four, it says my purpose, okay, is that they may be encouraged in heart. That's you and me talking to that you would be encouraged in heart and united in love. Listen, so that they, you and I may have the full riches. That's where the riches are not greed, the full riches of complete understanding.

That's what God considers riches, okay? In order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ and whom are hidden, how much? All, all the treasures. These are the real treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you, listen, by fine sounding arguments.

And again, as we've already said, there's a plethora of fine sounding arguments out there all designed to get you off course. And the only way you're going to get through that is by resisting them and letting that retro rocket put you back on the course that God wants you to be in on. Now, this first part of deal resistance in the next, I'm going to drill that and to resist and the forces that are at work in each and every, they're trying to draw us off course, just real quickly. There's the world, the flesh, the devil and the Lord every day. Those four forces are at work in our life.

They're all competing. They're all competing. And of course, three of those four are not healthy. We don't want to give in to the world, the flesh or the devil. We'll unpack that in the next session.

We want God to be the one who is flowing through our life. So thank you for watching. I hope everything came through on this broadcast. I'll check it out here in a minute. I'm not seeing a lot of people commenting right now, so I'm hoping we are actually live.

But I'll look for that here in just a few moments. But until next time, I pray that you will be blessed. And I pray, Lord, that again, the one or two nuggets of truth that you intended for everybody watching these episodes, I pray that there would be a tremendously powerful takeaway for each and every one of them of what you by your Holy Spirit want to impart. We thank you. We love you.

We honor you. Amen. God bless you guys.