Unlocking God’s Power: The Key to Obedience in Life

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The On Target Institute presents a teaching from the Men On Target small group curriculum. Now with today's session, On Target founder, Vince Dacchioli. Men, how you doing? Sorry, I got a little carried away there. Good to be with you.

And welcome to On Target Institute, Men On Target seminar material in session 15. The last couple of sessions, I really pray that you guys were blessed by my dear friend, Clarence Shuler, as he unpacked dealing with the father wound. In this next session, we're going to be dealing with the key to a life of power. The title is obedience session number one. Now as a reminder, it is very important for you to understand that there is some powerful, powerful resource material available at our site online.

I want to encourage you to go there and to be able to download those materials. It occurred to me a while back, someone told me this story about the Apollo moonshot. I don't know if you knew this, but the Apollo moonshot was off course 97% of the time. The only way that moonshot was eventually able to hit its mark is that along the way, it was called retro rockets. Well, obedience for me is the retro rocket for life.

Listen guys, our lives are off course, probably 97% of the time. And I really like to consider obedience really as the retro rocket for life. I want to start by looking at what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes. I think I've mentioned this to you guys before, but when I read Ecclesiastes, Solomon wrote the entire book really whining. He says, chasing after wind nine times, all his vanity is quoted 33 times, meaningless, meaningless, 35 times.

He goes through the entire book talking about the futility of life. But then when he gets to the very end, now listen, this is the wisest man that we know in all of history. When he says something, we should pay attention. He gets all done and I'm paraphrasing now. Now that I've said all this stuff and now that I've done all this whining, here's really what it boils down to.

Ecclesiastes 1213, what does it say? Now all has been heard, he says. Here is the conclusion of the matter. Now get this guys, two things, fear God and keep his commandments. He goes on to say this, for this is the whole duty of man.

Wow, powerful, powerful words. Guys, listen, when he talks about fearing God, that doesn't mean cowering in a corner and being afraid of God. That means being in awe of God, loving God. But I really want to focus you on the idea of keeping his commandments. We've talked in the past about moral schizophrenia, truth learned on Sunday that's not applied on Monday.

We're not very disciplined, obedient people. Someone said one time that sometimes your gifts can take you places where your character can't keep you. For most of my life, I operated in that realm. I was gifted in different areas but I had no substance or character on the inside and I refused to be obedient. And my lack of obedience caused me to have a lot of problems in my life for a very long time.

I love what Oswald Chambers says. This is one of his greatest quotes. Oswald Chambers says, God will not reveal more truth about himself. Listen, until you've obeyed what you already know. Wow, that's profound.

Now, I want to begin this session by looking into a very familiar place in Scripture. It's Matthew 4 verses 1 to 11 in the temptation of Jesus. As I go through these verses, I'm going to key in on three words that I'm going to ask you to write down and we'll refer back to later. Let's go ahead and read it together. In Matthew 4, 1 to 11, it says, Then 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. The very first place of temptation for Jesus and the word I want you to write down is in the area of hunger. Hunger. It goes on to say, Jesus answered it is written, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then, probably frustrated by now, the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, Throw yourself down for it is written. Listen, he'll command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone. The very next place of temptation for Jesus was in the area of pride. Write that down.

Pride. Hunger. And then pride. It goes on to say this, Jesus answered again, It is also written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

And he said, All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me. Third area was greed. The word is greed. Hunger. Pride.

And greed. Well, look what happens next. Jesus said to him, Away from me Satan. Say that again. Away from me Satan, for it is written.

Listen, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Now, the next word is the word then. You've heard me talk about this word before. I love it when the word then appears in scripture. It's a transitional word.

It means as a result of what happened before the word then, this is what took place. The result of Jesus resisting the devil in the area of hunger, pride and greed. It says this, then the devil left him and angels came and attended him. Guys, listen, there is a profound relationship between obedience and power. Listen, I have a theory.

I can't prove this, but Jesus was sinless. Now, please don't hear me say we could be sinless. We could never be sinless. But he was sinless. As a result of that sinless nature, he could avail himself of anything of God.

All of God's power could flow through him as a result of that sinless nature. Now, is it possible due to the spiritual law at work here? That if it were possible, again, it can't happen, but if it were possible for us to be sinless, that all of God's power could flow through our life as well. I believe there's a relationship that the more I get the sin out of my life, the more I recognize God's power flowing through me in ways that are absolutely amazing. I've seen it happen, hoping over and over again.

Let's drill down for a moment in these three areas, hunger, pride and greed. What do I mean by hunger? Well, I'm just not talking about hunger for physical food, although some of us could resist more in that area. But what are you allowing into your mind as you're scrolling through your dial on your TV set and you come upon that steamy scene? What are you allowing to come into your mind?

The world says, look, if it feels good, do it. Don't buy into the world's lie. It reminds me of that commercial I saw on TV one time with these beautiful people on the beach. These beautiful women and these little skimpy bikinis and these beautiful muscle-bound men are all on the beach one day and there's a cooler with beer in it. And these guys are pulling the beer out of the cooler and there's ice dripping off of the beer.

And these are gorgeous, gorgeous people and they're drinking this beer. Hey, listen, I'm going to tell you something. I used to drink a lot of beer and I'm sorry, but I ain't never seen anybody drink a lot of beer. It looks like these people. They just don't look like that, okay?

But the world says, look, just go ahead. If it feels good, just do it. Don't buy into that lie. Don't get hungry for the world's, what the world's throwing at you. Second area is greed.

You know, one-upsmanship. I just want more stuff and I can't tell you how many times I've lied and cheated in the business world because I just wanted to have more stuff. My focus was on that. In Colossians, this is my purpose that they may be encouraged and hard and united in love. So listen, they may have the full riches of what?

Complete understanding. That's where the riches are. In order, it goes on to say that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ and whom are hidden. Listen guys, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That's what we should be pursuing.

I tell you this, it goes on to say, so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. And guys, there's a lot of fine-sounding arguments out there, aren't there? Now, there are a lot of fine-sounding, but let me close this session by looking at our call. Let's go into some Bible verses and see what our call is. In the next session, we're going to really unpack this thing and talk about how we can be more disciplined.

Colossians 3-8, read yourself of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from your lips. This is our call. 1 Peter 1-13-16, prepare your minds for action. Be self-controlled. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you have when you live in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. Guys, listen, the difference between ignorance and stupidity? Ignorance is when you don't know any better. Stupidity is when you know better and you do it anyway.

And I don't know about you, but I'm tired of being guilty of stupidity. We are not ignorant. Be obedient. Ephesians 4-22, you were taught with regard to your former way of life. Put off the old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires.

Colossians 3-3-5, you died, your knife is now hidden or secure with Christ and God. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. And then 2 Corinthians 10-5, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Take that thought captive. And then in Romans, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then it says, if you will do that, here's the promise, you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, is good, pleasing and perfect will. Now, in keeping with our promise, let's explore life implication and life application. Life implication, simple.

If I'm not living in disobedience, I will never experience God's power in my life. Guys, that is huge. Now, let's move on to life application. Here is your discussion question. In which of these areas do I have the most struggle?

In the area of hunger, pride or greed? I want you to really have a good, healthy conversation and talk about, use some illustrations out of your life in these three areas where you struggle. And remember, this whole idea of taking thoughts captive, what I do is I just start praising God. Just start calling out Jesus' name when I get tempted and I get a thought. That's what I do to take a thought captive.

And you know what? You and I have that privilege as we become before Jesus. We have the privilege of doing the same thing. Now, look, I pray that God really blesses you in your discussion time after this session. And until next time, I always say this, don't forget about it.

Become the man God intended. Thank you.