BCC 2018 - Session 2

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Rivals

New thinking that crushes rivals

0 - Words of introduction

0 - I have a scripture that I think we’re supposed to camp in.

➡ 0 - Who wasn’t here last night? New guys - a bunch.

Recap: Champions & Rivals

0 - Recap of session 1:

1 - We talked about being champions. Definition: Overcoming every rival. Rivals in your life are everything that comes to quench the purpose in your life - you’re called to shine - to walk in the nature of God. You were made for God’s image.

1 - Purpose - The reason that man is on the earth according to the Bible is that God made man for His image. He gave you a body to house Him.

1 - Image lost - When Adam ate from the tree, Adam died because without God there’s no life. Adam’s heart was still beating, he was still breathing air but who he was created to be was completely lost through separation from God.

2 - Adam got cut off from the source of love and became in need of love. And now he’s driven by his need for love.

2 - Image restored - Born again is going back to that place (mint condition) through the Son. It’s nothing less. You’re not praying a prayer to go to heaven. Heaven is coming back into you and you’re being restored back to what Adam and Eve were before the fall.

2 - New thinking - So we’ve got to get renewed in the spirit of our minds because our whole lives we’ve been taught by the fall of man - by self-centeredness - by self-consciousness - by lies. From a very young age you were nothing more than how you responded to what happened to and around you. And it had nothing to do with truth or the real you. You are found in Him.

3 - We get born again. Old things pass away and behold all things become new. That sure beats a prayer to get your name in a book called life (the book of life).

3 - Become love - Become what He paid for - The gospel calls you to something. It makes you something. We’re not here to learn a bunch of doctrine and quote a lot of scripture. We’re here to become what He paid for. And what He paid for is what we were from the beginning. Let us make man in our image. So in the likeness and image of God, He made man.

4 - Faith to become - So you believe it. And you release faith in that truth. You go after that - grow up in that - and yield and surrender - and give everything over that’s not producing Him (rival) - and embrace everything that is producing Him.

➡ 4 - So I want to show you a scripture… It’s fun. We’ve got amazing purpose in God - no matter where we’ve been or what we’ve done.

4 - Transformation - Everything changes - We heard an amazing testimony that shows when Christ comes in everything can change. You’re not who you were. You’re who you have become in Him. You’re not where you’ve been. You’re a product of where He’s been. Everything changes. We’ve got to let that matter more than what we talked about last night - feelings and all that stuff.

➡ 5 - I’m trying to recap what we talked about last night. I’m going to have trouble...

5 - Rivals & Champions - We talked about rivals - overcoming every rival. Rival - Everything that is set against what we just talked about coming to pass in your life is a rival. A champion overcomes every rival - not most rivals - every rival. If it’s not every rival then you’re not a champion. Nobody remembers runner ups.

6 - There are rivals: wars, strategies that are set against you.

6 - Weapons of our warfare - It’s mighty in God for the pulling down of wrong believing. Strongholds. Stuff in the mind.

6 - Fallen understanding - So we live by faith - not by sight. We’re not leaning on own understanding. We got our understanding through the fall. We were born into Adam. We need to be born again.

7 - New wineskins for new life - You don’t bring the things of Adam into new life. You bring Him into new life. He’s the new and living way. He’s the Way, the Truth, the Life.

7 - Way to the Father - Personally knowing - No one comes to the Father… So Jesus isn’t just the way to heaven. He’s the way to eternal life. And eternal life is being one with the Father - knowing Him is eternal life. Not just about going to heaven - that’s impersonal and your life won’t change. You’ll have the same attitudes, same hurts, same feelings, same pains and the same lies will seem like truth.

8 - So being born again is an introduction into intimacy and relationship - sons / Father.

8 - “Father” / “God” - Father - to come forth from. God - source of life. There is something powerful about using that address. I came forth from the source of life. My life is the will of God. He’s my Father.

9 - Be a son - And that makes me a son. So I am acceptable - beloved - pure in His sight. He’s not angry. You didn’t mess up too much. He’s changing you. Your heart is sincere

9 - Reject condemnation - Rivals - Even If you mess up stay out of condemnation. To condemn yourself is never the answer. The fact that you care shows that your heart is alive. If you weren’t alive you wouldn’t care at all. You need to say wait a minute - My heart is crying inside. Something is changing inside of me. My actions seem to be repetitive but something inside of me is different. Thinking that way is how condemnation gets crushed and new fruit starts forming on the tree. See yourself beyond what you’ve produced. See yourself like He sees you. Like how He saw you while you were yet a sinner. Did you change to get saved or did you trust in Him? Did you receive the way that He saw you? Is that how you get saved? You believe on Him.

10 - False humility - But once you believe on Him, you have to believe that you’re worthy. Let’s stop this false humility. “Well, I’m not worthy.” He made you worthy. Don’t be afraid to believe that He made you worthy. Your own works never make you worthy. But your trust in Him is automatic worth.

11 - My life is more than I’ve ever realized. Jesus reveals that to me through the cross. He wants to put Himself back inside of me and restore what was lost when Adam ate from the tree. You’ve got to settle on that - accept that.

Recap: Champions & Rivals (cont.)

14 - Rivals - You’re overcoming every rival - every mindset - every mentality - every attitude that quenches the light of Christ in your life. It’s a lie - a deception. Let your light so shine.

15 - Keep you from shining - The enemy wants to keep you from shining. He could care less if you are at the men’s conference - just keep you from shining. He doesn’t care if you can sing twice as loud as anybody else - just keep you from shining. He would love for you to be religious and do all of the right things and never become what Jesus paid for.

15 - Rivals can be subtle or blatant. Sometimes they are straight up the devil and sometimes they can look almost like angels of light.

15 - Anything that keeps you from shining is a lie.

15 - Hurt -  “But you don’t know what she did to me.” Stop. She’s not the Lord. Why is she governing your life? I’m not saying that the feelings aren’t real or that you don’t have things to walk through but stop letting her decide who you are, when she is not the Lord.

16 - List of rivals - Vestiges of the fall - Look how easy it is in our lives to feel a little insecure - to feel like we need to be noticed - to get a little indignant - letting somebody rub you the wrong way and you just feel troubled on the inside - competitiveness - self-awareness - criticism - projection - judging by appearance or first impressions - these are all signs (vestiges) of the fall. None of it is wisdom. None of it is Jesus.

17 - Not in Jesus? - Not in me - If I can’t see it in Jesus, I don’t want it in me. So we are going to work this thing out. It’s called “working out our own salvation.”

17 - Guard your heart - We need to be diligent to do this because nobody is going to be standing with you when you stand before Him. There will be no excuses - no more deceptions. In the light of who He is you’ll see it clearly.

18 - Take advantage of your opportunity - One shot at life. So let’s go after what we’re learning - what we’re growing in. Years are rolling by.

19 - Life is a gift. Don’t waste it. Don’t bail out - cop out - make excuses. It shouldn’t be a dred - too much of a challenge - mad at everybody - not fair… It keeps you feeling sorry for yourself - angry at others. They are all rivals to keep you from being like Him.

19 - Worldly wisdom surrounding rivals - There’s a form of wisdom wrapped around rivals but it’s not of God. It’s the world.

Pursue Intimate Relationship - Be with Him

21 - Transformation through relationship - Communing Recap - Last night we said that nobody can walk this thing out - faith works through love - unless you pursue relationship with God. We covered ways that you can talk to Him - commune with Him - questions you can ask Him. Talk to Him like He’s right in the room - like He’s real.

21 - Faith over feelings - People say, “Yeah, but I don’t feel anything… It doesn’t seem real…” Stop. Those are rivals. That’s all sensuality.

21 - Faith first - Feelings follow - I didn’t pursue God to have Him come and hug on me. I believed that He loved me because of the cross. And I realized in time, because I began to experience His love, that I experienced it because I believed it first. Whether I was experiencing it or not, I knew that it was true because of the cross.

22 - I wasn’t crying all the time, “When is God going to show me His love? You’ve got the love of God. Pray for me…” If you do that, you stay sensual and if you aren’t FEELing it, you aren’t doing well. And all of that time He loves you. If you do that you teach yourself, without even realizing it, that you’ve got to experience it and FEEL it for it to be real instead of believing it - where the knowing grows in your heart.

22 - Build a knowing - People ask, “How do you know that God is real?” He’s real because I know. “How do you know?” I could share encounters, experiences, healings - but the strength of my believing is being able to say “I know.” And you can’t touch that.

23 - How are you going to build that knowing unless you spend time with Him? Unless you get alone with Him and unveil your face… We’re the bride. Unveil your face and be His. It’s not unmanly to have intimate relationship with God.

Vengeance - Jesus wasn’t Vengeful - Look Like Him

24 - Injustice done to Jesus - Yet He wasn’t bitter - despite the fact that He manifested God during His whole time on the earth. Stripped naked and dying on a cross and yet He has no bitterness towards man - no issue towards people. Why? Because He knows God. And He knows who He is in the sight of God. And He knows that this thing is eternal. He doesn't let what men don’t see determine what He does see. He is the light of the world.

25 - He invites us in - Follow me - I’m the first born among MANY. The things I do, YOU will do if you believe. The rivals are trying to keep you from believing the gospel - but go ahead and be a “Christian” instead of being more like Him. He paid to put His life inside of us - not to just put your name in a book.

25 - Vengeance - Brought up in another wisdom - Description of injustice to Jesus on the cross. Attitude of the Pharisees. If it were us we would not have been as kind to the Pharisees. We didn’t see that kind of vengefulness from Jesus - wasn’t in His life. Where did we get that from - revenge, retribution, payback? We were trained in another kingdom. Tutored by another wisdom - the spirit of this world - this age.

27 - Look like Jesus - Jesus comes - the way, the truth, the life. John the baptist says, “It’s Him. Don’t follow me. Follow Him.” God acknowledges Him - My beloved Son, hear Him.

28 - Everything that is saying what Jesus didn’t say through His life is a rival. If it’s not producing His nature, you’re caught in a snare - regardless of how many people endorse it.

28 - Why do you need to be right if it comes at the cost you being like Him?

Pursue Intimate Relationship (cont.)

Condemnation

29 - If we stumble - Run to Him - And even if you feel like you are failing in some areas, run to Him - not run from Him. Please don’t ever play church. Run to Him when nobody is looking. Father, that is so not who you called me to be. I know that I have higher potential. That thing just seems to drive me - to sneak up on me. And for some reason, I have yielded again. But God, I know that my life is more than this.

30 - Condemnation - I’ve learned that people don’t do that when they’re in trouble. They spiral with lies of - why you’re not worthy - why you don’t get it - why your heart is not for real - why you’re probably not even saved - if you were for real you would be free by now.

30 - Condemnation - Your alive on the inside - All of those thoughts are tearing you down on the inside. Why? Because you’re alive on the inside. Your heart is sincere. You’re just being deceived. If you were what those thoughts were implying then you wouldn’t even care. You’d be numb and lost.

31 - Condemnation - A tool of the devil - You can’t condemn a man that doesn’t care on the inside. Condemnation is a tool of the enemy. He misguides the care into condemnation to get you to see yourself apart from what’s really going on - the truth. So when you believe the lie it devalues yourself even more in your own eyes. And you think less of yourself. So you have no power to live up to your calling. You live down to level you see for yourself.

31 - You live to the value you see for yourself - If the gospel can raise the value you have for yourself in your own eyes, it automatically changes your conduct and your life without you trying - without works. You begin to see yourself the way that He does. You begin to see yourself for what He paid for. And you begin to live up to that because that’s how you see yourself.

32 - Transformation by grace through faith - It’s powerful. That’s why it’s not works. It’s grace through faith. So as you begin to believe the truth about what He’s done and who you are in Him. Grace comes to make that truth your reality - without you biting your lip, trying to change. What you see is what changes you.

Recap: Champions & Rivals (cont.)

32 - The enemy blinds, deceives so you can’t believe - Do you see why the devil is a deceiver? Do you see why he blinds eyes? Do you see why he is in the realm of darkness?

33 - So walk in the light as He is in the light. If any man says he abides in Him, he ought to walk even as He walked. He’s the first born among many brethren. The things I do, you’ll do if you believe. He says, Follow me. Why would we need more examples?

34 - Don’t focus on the darkness - Shine - We get focused on the darkness. But He says, None of that is relevant. What’s relevant is what’s on you. So go ahead and shine. Your light has come.

34 - Don’t let people be lord - “Yeah, but but I’ve been hurt going to church. You don’t understand. They aren’t even about Jesus.” Well, why aren’t you crying FOR them? Why are you frustrated? Why are you letting people and where they are not, trick you into where you are?

35 - Why do people put their trust in one another and get themselves heartbroken and fall back and never move forward again? Why? Because they’ve never really established intimate relationship with God. So they set up people to decide them - to dictate how they are doing instead of having intimate relationship with God which causes them to have a healthy view of people - regardless of whether the people have been right or wrong. You won’t change your mind about people. The more that you know Him, the more that you will see men the way that He does.

36 - And all of the sudden your heart is protected in what you believe. It’s not because you’re trying to be loving. It’s what you believe.

Fallen Emotions - Salvation of the Soul

36 - Fallen emotions - The emotions we grew up with have nothing to do with who we’re created to be. They are skewed through the fall of man with self-centered motives.

36 - Salvation of the soul - We relate to them, locate ourselves in them and ask for prayer because of them instead of discarding them as perversion and start growing in a new truth that realigns everything - so that the salvation of my soul can happen - the healing of my mind and emotions - to where I’m not hurt because you did me wrong. Why? Because I understand who you are - who you’re called to be - and I realize that if you knew who you’re called to be, you wouldn’t have done me wrong. My heart hurts, then, for you instead of being hurt by you.

37 - Anger and irritation - If you just get angry at people, you’re trapped in a self-centered place. If your spouse has the ability to rub you the wrong way, you’re probably waking up for her to love you rather than waking up to be more like Jesus. Now she’s letting you down and she becomes your potter. It’s motives - motivation.

37 - Jesus - Not pottered by men - Jesus didn’t wake up for men to appreciate Him. If He had been Jesus would have never gone to the cross.

38 - Where do you get this stuff from? Jesus. I believe Him. Follow Him. You don’t see Him all bent out of shape because of the actions of others.

38 - Scenario - Jesus bent out of shape? Frustrated / broken. You can’t picture that in Jesus. He’s love. He’s not waking up for anyone to do anything for Him. He’s waking up to be like the Father.

Bear Fruit - Subdue the Rivals

40 - Fruitfulness - It’s good preaching because it brings change to our lives. It brings conviction. It keeps away the little foxes so that the fruit of the vine can come. In this the Father is well pleased that you bear much fruit.

41 - The vine, the fruit & the keeper - If you keep reading in John 15 you’ll see that if you’re bearing fruit, He trims you up - makes you all groomed and pretty - so that you can sprout out even more branches and produce even more fruit. He made your life to be fruitful - not merely to exist - not to just get by - not to just pray for good circumstances, provision, protection and make it all about just you and your wellbeing - but to be fruitful and multiply in every season - in every time.

41 - Purpose - If we are not pursuing this - to walk in the light as He is in the light, how can we ever be fruitful? If we are not bearing fruit, we’re not even in alignment with why He came.

41 - Not works - But at the same time, we’ve got to make sure that we don’t get into works and end up condemned.

42 - Through becoming - You become fruitful through becoming. There will be fruitfulness in your life as you take on His nature through prayer and communion and faith and as you keep these rivals subdued. So the fruit is going to be automatic.

Be Encouraged in His Goodness

43 - This isn’t hard to understand. You can to wrap faith around this. Here is what you do… “My life is worth this to Him. He paid for this.”

43 - Price paid for value. If you bought something and it didn’t work right, you would take it back. Why? Because you paid for it and it’s supposed to do what you paid for it to do. You take it back. You might get upset - consumer rights. What if God were like that? “I paid a high price for you and you aren’t performing.”

44 - Have confidence in the goodness of God to move forward - We have all kinds of impressions of God that He has never projected. That’s how some of us see Him. Some of us fear Him. But His goodness and mercy shows that  He’s the best encourager ever. “You can do this. I paid for this. I love you. I’ll never change my mind about you.”

45 - Not an excuse for sin - That doesn't mean that you abuse His mercies to get through another mess. His goodness is designed to click and for you to realize that He sees you clearer than you’ve ever seen you. “He knows what I am capable of.” And He’s not sitting there in false hope, “One day maybe they’ll get it if I’m nice.” No, He’s saying, “You’re worth this. I paid for this. I saw it from the beginning. That’s why I made man. I’m a Rock. I don’t change and shift. I see you the same as I always have.”

Recap: Champions & Rivals - Wrap Up

47 - God made us to love - Not be needy of others - This is not wimpy. If we fail to become love, we miss the whole point of why God sent His Son. God made man in His image and God is love. He made man to love. Not need love - be love. The reason that we so relate to needing love is because we’ve lived apart from Him.

47 - Grafted back in to the Source of love - Who are you grafted back into - each other or Him? He’s the vine. We’re the branches. Fruit forms on the branches but the life that’s in the vine is feeding the branch. The two are one.  Oneness leading to fruit. Christ in you - the hope of glory.

48 - We’re grafted back in to the source of love. Why are we grafted back in? Not to remain needy for love but to be fulfilled in His love and become more like Him.

48 - The reason that people struggle with this is because we’ve been taught by self-centeredness and needs driveness our whole lives. We didn’t know who we were. If we had known who we were, we wouldn’t have been doing what we were doing.

49 - We did so many wrong things but His mercy triumphs over judgement. “You are so much more. I know your purpose. I know your potential. I know what I made you for.”

49 - No accidents - There’s a time to be born.

50 - Hating life - when it’s a gift. These mindsets are rivals.

Marriage Advice - Sexuality

51 - Marriage advice - Everyday I wake up: She doesn’t owe me a thing. I’m here to love her. I’m going to be like Jesus in her life.

51 - I’m done with these ideas: Marriage is 50/50. Marriage is a lot of work.

51 - Marriage is “I love you.” And you prove it with your life.

52 - Set aside rights.

52 - God doesn’t give up on us. “You are so much more than what you understand. Your potential is greater than you ever realized. I love you and I always will.”

53 - Love your wife as He loves us.

53 - Submit to your husband - Yield and adapt. That’s the only verse in Eph. 5 that he addresses to the wife. All of the rest are directed to the husband. And yet we exploit “Wives, submit to your husbands.”

54 - Set your heart in walking in love. Value her in every moment. Lay down your life like He did.

55 - Needs-driven. Your wife was made to receive the love of God through her covenant man.

55 - The reason for making men and women. Multiplying.

57 - Sex drive. Driven to need something from a woman and exempt from loving anyone. Love doesn’t seek its own.

58 - Adam naming the animals - Whatever Adam said, so it was. Why? Because Adam was functioning in the authority that he was given - the wisdom that he was given.

59 - Creating Eve - Adam - No others comparable. He’s like me. God makes avenue for man to manifest love. Two out of one so that two could become one.

100 - Man and woman in God’s image. What’s the created value of the woman? The image of God - not serving the man. The man is to love her like Christ loves the church.

101 - The first thing that God addressed in me after salvation was - sex-drive, manhood.

101 - Living at the expense of another - She’s not here just to scratch your itch. Meeting our need. The gospel lays down it’s life to love.

102 - Creation of Eve - an avenue to manifest the image. Be fruitful and multiply - the context is image - multiply the image - cover the earth with my glory.

103 - What we’ve made “love.” Romance. Should instead be a laid down life.

103 - Reject “attitude” toward wife. Why are you letting your wife shape you instead of the One who lives in you.

104 - Don’t end up living out a lie.

Teaching

➡ 105 - No time left to read this scripture.

106 - I sense when He is teaching through me. If He is preaching it’s got to be good.

106 - Identity from teaching - Lord, you know that I have no need to preach. I don’t draw my identity from preaching.

107 - Stricter judgement for teachers.

108 - Here is how I pray before preaching. If they handed you the mic, Lord, You know exactly what You would say. Your words would be right on. Please let those be the only words that come out of my mouth.

108 - I may get up to teach with a scripture in mind but He might take things in a different direction. I’m believing that when I was praying, I DID hand Him the mic because He will speak through my heart if my motive is pure.

Closing Exhortations - Know Him - Become Love

108 - Everyone in this room is called to this. No exceptions. We were all made for His image. This gospel restores us back to that image.

109 - Transformation through relationship - But you and I have to get alone with God and start talking like this, Lord, I was trained by so many lies. I was trained by the perversity of feelings and emotions. I was trained by the wisdom of the world. But You’re in me and I’m asking You to begin to retrain, re-school and revive my mind in the truth. Holy Spirit, I welcome You...

109 - Commune the word - Talk to Him while you are reading your Bible. Read your Bible to know Him.

109 - Holy Spirit I’m asking you to illuminate my heart and show me exactly why You wrote this… You inspired men to write it, now inspire me...

110 - Praying for wife. Prayer for and blessing of marriages - Teach me to love.