Train to Reign
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Train to Reign (Committed to Standards)
Train to Reign (Committed to Standards)
Hasn’t this been great:
I want to Thank Steve, Jason and the Train to Reign Crew
I want to Thank Pastor (Dave and Matt) and Hillside Christian Fellowship for hosting
Amazing speakers so far
I’m honored to be here
My wife and I Pastor Reign Church in Vancouver WA
We have a second campus in Kelso WA
We started our own Bible College in 2015
We now have 5 Campuses and are in the process of starting two more, our goal is 8 by the end of the year
1 have one wife, 4 kids and 2 dogs
My oldest is 7 and a girl the rest are wild boys
4 and 5 year old boys I can’t bend down to tie my shoes or get on their level or they’re on my trying to take me out
I literally work out and do jiu jitsu so they don’t whoop me before they get into high school
We are currently living in a 5th wheel, while we wait on our house to be built on a property we bought last year
It is noisy, chaotic and I wouldn’t trade it for any possible life that you could offer me
I strive for Godliness in my life, I’m extremely content where God has me and it’s the greatest gain that I can even put into words
I believe God does nothing by accident and I believe you being here is not an exception
I believe this will be a year of opportunity for you if you’re prepared for it
Every time the word is preached it’s an opportunity for seed to be planted in our hearts and eventually produce fruit
IF we steward the opportunities in front of us
Use what you’ve learned here today to grow Your relationship with God, and grow your business
We named our church after my parent’s life long scripture
17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
Your purpose is found in obedience and serving:
Simplified are you going to stay committed to What God has called you to do
Are we going to be obedient to his word
9 But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
God has amazing things for you this year
This has been my wife and I’s scripture we have been standing on and I’m continually being blown away by what God is doing in us and through us
How many of you had new years resolutions for this year?
How are they going?
I believe we should set goals, have a vision for what you want to do this year
Here’s another thought this year:
Instead of setting goals
Let’s look at what you’re committed to this year?
What standards in your life and in your business that you’re committed to?
What do you think we could achieve if you raised your standards
A lot of people have the end or future in mind, which we need for motivation
but we can often look past the day to day, line upon line, precept upon precept things that it takes us to get there
Give you a simple example and you can fill in your blanks here:
Say your goal is to lose 20 pounds in 6 months
What standard in your life will you have to set to achieve your goal
Goals change your life
Standards change your lifestyle
So if you want to lose 20 pounds
Your standard could look like I workout 3 days a week and cut out bread or anything made with flour this year
You know have a standard in which you achieve your goal
discipline is contagious in your life
Watch what happens in your life when you raise your standards
Standards are what we allow:
We allow ourselves to skip out on our prayer time
We allow ourselves to get distracted
We allow ourselves to remain comfortable in the job we’re currently
We allow ourselves to make excuses
why we don’t have enough time
why we don’t want to take risks
why we need an extra 30 min of sleep
19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Bind (Deo)in the greek: tie, fasten, prohibit, to forbid
Whatever you prohibit will be prohibited
Loose(Loo-o):
undo, dissolve, anything bound, tied, or compacted together
What you allow on earth will be allowed in heaven, What you don’t allow on earth won’t be allowed in heaven
I like to think of it like this: What you prohibit on this earth can free you from being bound
Jesus is saying what you choose to allow or prohibit, heaven gets behind you
What are standards in your that you have compromised in?
There’s three choice in your life when it comes to your standards:
1. Commitment
Bound or obligated, as under a pledge to a particular cause, action, or attitude.
this is how you feel January 1st
I’m committed to this thing
nothing can get me off this new way of living
I cannot be shaken
We make contracts with ourselves an hold ourselves to standards
BUT For most of us the commitment eventually turns into
2. Compromise
A settlement of differences in which each side makes concessions
Usually when your flesh wins the argument with your spirit or soul
When a second thought enters into the situation
compromise will always work itself into standards if you’re not careful
Compromise isn’t always sin, but it can turn into it if your not careful
We might think of compromise as quitting or falling into temptation
Compromise is really a the small decisions you make along the way which leads you to quitting
Compromise is when you allow the wrong thoughts to start negotiating with your standards
Compromise always creates momentum in our lives
3. Chaos
A condition or place of great disorder or confusion
The etymology of chaos ”gaping void; empty, immeasurable space,"
Lack of Structure is the product of chaos
Emptiness
You have nothing to frame the problem
Where standards put you on the offense chaos is a purely defensive position
When people don’t have standards in their finances
You don’t have standards in your arguments with your spouse
You compromise saying the right things to each other in love
Chaos ensues and the defense drives you to sides
If you don’t have standards in your arguments or ground rules
NO wonder people don’t stay together
If rules are off the table nobody wants to engage in the game
19 having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, 20 of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
What does commitment look like?
Commitment to me looks like entering a room with no exits
When I say that I commited to my wife
We both agreed that no matter what comes there’s no exit strategy
There’s no exit strategy for me
I won’t even entertain it and neither will she
When you remain committed, no matter where your starting point God can take you to the top.
Biblical Examples:
Joseph, Daniel, Esther, Deborah
Male and Female alike
It didn’t matter where they started they ended up leading
Started from the bottom now we here
Joseph sold into slavery to running Potiphers affairs
Gets wrongfully convicted and ends up in prison
Then after years of hitting dead ends
Ends up being second in command of all of Egypt
Joseph committed his life to his dream and and His God
Daniel:
19 Then the king interviewed them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they served before the king.
Daniel stood out because he had God’s favor in His life
3 Let not mercy and truth forsake you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart,
4 And so find favor and high esteem
In the sight of God and man.
Daniel didn’t have a new and better covenant and neither did David
We have a born again spirit through Jesus
How much more grace and divine favor do we have
2 Peter 1:2-3 talks about grace and peace being multiplied
God is a God of multiplication
He doesn’t Just add he multiplies
You walk in a greater Favor than Daniel did
5 Things (among others that Daniel committed to that made him successful
1. Committed to integrity:
8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. 9 Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs.
I believe the way you do anything is the way you do everything
If you compromise in the small things you’ll compromise in everything else
Your business is usually a direct reflection of your personal life
Leadership is just as much a spirit that caught as it is taught
Integrity is leading from the front, not driving from the back
I don’t encourage my church to pray if I don’t lead them in praying on my own
I don’t encourage my church to be generous or tithe unless I’m leading the charge
There might be people who give more money in total than me but I am to be the most generous person I know
You can’t lead unless your out front
integrity is what keeps you long term
2. Committed to excellence:
12 Inasmuch as an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining enigmas were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, now let Daniel be called, and he will give the interpretation.”
We can’t require excellence out of others if we don’t have a spirit of excellence
Excellence can’t be a part time practice
When you keep cutting corners what are you left with?
A circle
A cyclical behavior or poor quality
I heard a story about Mr. Steve Locke
We’re not going to be a half an inch off
I’m literally having him build a shop for me now because I love that mentality
3. Committed to being Faithful:
Daniel was faithful to God even under bad leadership
Daniel served under 3 pegan kings and a Jewish prime minister
Daniel served under corrupt immoral kings and still committed to being faithful in His word
Daniel was a teenager taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar during the first siege of Jerusalem in 605 B.C.
He was of royal blood. While in captivity, without the slightest compromise, he faithfully served under the administration
No matter what position you have or who your boss is, you can be faithful to God
23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,
That’s called stewardship:
Stewardship is broken down to two categories:
Owners and renters
Owners think differently than renters
Renters are thinking what’s next, while owners are thinking how can I improve here?
Picking up trash, cleaning bathrooms
When you’re an owner, you can have the miss-conception that everyone sees things the same way you do
There’s a few parables in the bible that talk about faithfulness
Rich man goes away and leave his servants with talents 1,2,5
Jesus was saying even if your talents are someone else’s treat them as their yours
3 Keys to promotion:
Luke 16
Faithful in that which is least
Faithful with your money (you want to watch your business prosper tithe off every dollar you make to your church)
Genesis 26 you can sow in a famine and reap in the same year
we don’t operate in the world economy!
Faithful with what’s another man’s
When you are working for someone else you are still working for the Lord
If you’re a business owner, take ownership of you church
If you’re working for someone else take ownership and watch how God promotes you
I’ve seen people sand bag or just do have effort while working for someone else cause they anticipate going to a different company or starting their own
And they don’t realize their sowing terrible seeds for their future
A piece of advice to young people in here:
My dad told me this, “if your making 10 dollars an hour and you work like your making 20 bucks an hour, eventually someone will pay you 20 bucks an hour.”
My first Job out of college in the oil field
Even if you’re job isn’t high paying be faithful and thankful and God will promote you
4. Committed to Prayer:
If you want to be successful in business
In marriage
With your kids
With your life
You have to be committed to prayer
3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
When you seek God
Lord move
Lord reveal
Most of the story of God moving through Daniel was him revealing thing to Him
God wants to reveal things to you
Lord show me
10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.
Some people not you, don’t pray three times a week and wonder why they have a hard time hearing from God
This was nothing new to Him
Fasting and Praying before and For Colter
The Lord revealed to me how to get him out of the Hospital
The Lord revealed to me how to pray for Him
5. Committed to Fearing the Lord:
In a day where people
We fear the Lord more than the opinions and even the consequences of Men
10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.
11 Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.
Daniel gets thrown in the Lions Den for obeying God rather than man
We are living in an age where Pastors and Christian leaders have these massive followings
And when hard questions are put in front of them
You see them fear the opinions culture rather than obeying God
Some of them stay strong but a lot I have seen bow their knee to the will of Culture
Instead of standing for God
More than ever the world is demanding that christians and the church be lukewarm
To relax on our convictions and standards
But we have to be a people who is committed to Fearing the Lord
It might cost you a business deal here and there
It might cost you to lose out of Jobs or people might not want to work with you
Even to the point of Daniel being put to death essentially He stays committed to God
Here’s what happens to the World when we stay committed
26 I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel.
For He is the living God,
And steadfast forever;
His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed,
And His dominion shall endure to the end.
Some people think by catering to culture or catering to the world is going to put them in a better position
When really staying committed to our convictions is the only way to have influence
Let’s Raise our Standards and Stay committed to the things God has for us this year
Be a good steward of every opportunity you get
Pray