God sees us, not so much for what we've been born with,
that's the sovereignty of God for sure,
but what we do with what we've got.
We're talking about tips for a maximum impact life.
And the last time we talked about the importance
and the power of being wholehearted,
seeking first the kingdom of God.
My thesis is this.
The more you line up with God's purposes,
spiritually, mentally, emotionally,
relationally, and even physically,
the healthier, more vibrant,
and more resilient your life will become.
And the result will be a maximum impact life.
So we talked about being wholehearted,
being all in to God's truth.
And then I'm gonna show this diagram again.
This shows the nature of who you are, what makes you up.
And I think there's been a tendency in the church,
sometimes it just emphasized the spiritual,
but as you're looking at this chart,
you can see how deficient that is,
because really the mental, emotional,
relational, spiritual, physical,
they all are in synergy together.
And so I'm talking about, with the tips that I'm giving,
you've gotta be strong, you've gotta be healthy,
you've gotta build an immune system in all these areas
to have a maximum impact with your life.
Then I talked about meditation and truth,
and the importance of being set free
by living, believing, and acting upon truth in your life.
I wanna talk about prayer and journaling,
prayer and journaling.
And intimacy with God comes through prayer.
Taking to God those needs of our life
are one of the great points of surrender,
one of the great points of peace and satisfaction
that we find in our lives.
I find it interesting that in Matthew chapter six,
Jesus is talking about worry.
Verse 25 of Matthew six, he said,
you worry about this, you worry about that,
worry, worry, worry.
And then in verse 33, he says,
seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all the things that you're worried about
will be added to you.
In other words, God knows that you need those things,
and he's gonna take care of those things
if you'll keep your priorities straight.
So instead of putting your eyes on your worries,
on the things that you need,
put your eyes on the kingdom,
and then God will put his eyes on the things that you need.
So the more we line up with the kingdom of God,
the more God takes care of those things in our life
and creates a healthy environment for us.
Now, here's what's interesting.
Right after Jesus says that,
seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you,
he talks about prayer.
He talks about the need for us to seek him in prayer.
He says, ask, and it will be given to you.
Seek, and you will find.
Knock, and the door will be opened to you.
So Jesus isn't just saying, seek the kingdom,
don't even think about any of these other things.
No, he's saying, as you seek the kingdom,
will you come to me and ask for the things that you need?
Will you seek me for the things that you need?
Will you knock at the door of what your needs are?
And he promises to answer that.
In another passage in Matthew 25,
Jesus says to everyone who has,
more will be given and he will have an abundance,
but from him who has not,
even what he has will be taken away.
As a pastor and a counselor and a coach and a leader,
I find myself in situations where I look at people's lives
and you see people who are seeking the kingdom first,
crying out to God for the things that they need,
they get richer.
I mean, it doesn't seem fair,
but they keep getting blessings from God
because they keep taking all their needs to God.
And then I get around other people,
oftentimes more wealthy, more talented,
more gifted and more skilled.
And they're losing everything that they have.
And they've got way more resources than the other person,
but they don't seek the Lord.
They don't seek the kingdom.
They don't ask, they don't seek, they don't knock.
And what happens is their life is shriveling up,
just shriveling up because they're dependent
on their own power, their own ingenuity.
And believe me, some of these people
are really, really smart.
So I'll tell you, for some, it takes a long time,
but when you look at the things that matter,
and that would be the mental and the emotional
and the relational and the spiritual,
and even the physical, their life is unhealthy.
That person who's seeking the kingdom
may not have the resources, may not have the skills,
may not even have the wisdom or the knowledge yet,
but their life is unhealthy.
getting richer and richer and richer with their lives it's amazing it happens
so guys wait this way I think it works is that I think God sees us not so much
for what we've been born with that's the sovereignty of God for sure but what we
do with what we've got it's not what you're born with it's what you do with
what you're born with and as we begin to dedicate our lives to the Lord if we
dedicate the the tiniest of talents that we have and the skills that we have to
the Lord the scriptures seem to indicate that what we've been given if we give it
back to God and we commit ourselves to him he gives us more of what we've been
given press down running over with the Jesus says he will have an abundance and
then our earlier talk the last time I talked about Psalm 1 that when you
meditate on truth when you meditate on God's law you become like a tree
planted by streams of water and we prosper in what we do so I'm telling you
folks following the kingdom seeking the kingdom going after God and delighting
in his word is going to cause success it's gonna bring prosperity I mean
there's going to be hardship and there's no doubt about it there's also an enemy
there's also Satan and demons to attack you and fight against your pursuit of
God but listen and think about this logically do you want to be living your
life in your own power in your totally limited by your own knowledge and your
own ingenuity or do you want to become a person of prayer who cries out the gods
says Lord I don't have what I need I don't have the wisdom that I need for
this project and this thing God would you show me would you guide me waking up
every morning spending time in God's Word and prayer and then journaling that
writing down what God's saying to you is the key to success in your life as you
grow older and as you grow deeper in the things of the Lord should be causing
greater success greater prosperity and greater abundance in your life I'm not
talking about not having hardship if you watch my series on bring it on I talk a
lot about suffering and hardship matter of fact what the purpose of it is you
should watch that series watch that show that I that I put together because in
that presentation I'm talking about where the scriptures speak of count it
all joy when you go through various trials knowing the testing your of your
faith produces endurance endurance will have its perfect result that you will be
perfect and lacking in nothing so God actually brings hardship into our lives
he brings difficulties into our life for that very purpose of perfecting you for
greater success and greater prosperity in your life it's amazing what God can do
in that regard well fourthly move on to a fourth tip for a maximum impact life
deal with trauma and shame deal with trauma and shame all of us have trauma
all of us have shame everybody that I've ever met has it and if they say they
don't have it they've really got it and we all wear masks we all hide stuff and
then there's a good part of that I should say that we don't need to be
sharing all of our stuff with everybody we meet but I will say that until the
mask start to come off most the time it's very very difficult to get healed
being willing to face our trauma and our shame as hard as it is I mean shame it
sends spiritual tremors up our spiritual body we think about shame the things
that we've been traumatized in our life some of us have been traumatized very
very deeply with sexual sin some of us have been traumatized less so in other
areas but we all have this trauma and it's sometimes in the sexual areas
sometimes it's in the mental areas sometimes it's in I mean even neglect
neglect can be trauma in our lives as well as enmeshment and I think about
enmeshment because I know so many that are enmeshed in relationships where
they're only you know nine or ten years old and their mom's an alcoholic and the
father's left the home and guess who becomes the parent the nine-year-old the
kid does and the kids having to tuck his mom into bed and roll her out of bed
because of her alcoholism or her drug addiction that's enmeshment and so that
that does things to a kid's spirit that affect them later in life we have tragic
events
that can happen to us at a very early age that are super difficult for us to deal with.
Well I challenge you to deal with your trauma and your shame by being vulnerable about it with some
with some trusted people in your life. I'm going to talk about that the next time about the
importance of some trusted friends, some sanctified relationships that you need in your life because
they're just huge in helping us get through trauma and shame. In my life I went through a year of
counseling with a professional counselor to look at some trauma, to look at some shame that was
hindering me as a leader and as a pastor and as a husband and as a dad. So we're all growing in
those things, men and women, and that's part of the high impact life we can have is dealing with
our trauma and our shame in our lives. In our next episode I want to talk about
some aspects of how we deal with that trauma as it relates even to our physical bodies
and the importance of staying in shape, the importance of working out,
and the importance of getting outside. So until next time, I'll talk to you later.