Over the last few weeks as we have talked through the various components of being under the new management of the Lord Jesus Christ, I've been pretty aggressive. I've confronted you with a lot of truth, hopefully with enough grace mixed in so you can receive it well, but all of it with the intention of you embracing more completely the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Remember, Lordship is not bits and pieces that you choose. It's not the stuff you're OK with him controlling and directing, But it means all. It's all or nothing. Just to make sure you understand: everything or nothing.

Now, that's really easy with something like eternity and John 3:16. "So you're telling me that Jesus loves me so much that if I put my faith in him, I can have everlasting life and live in heaven with him after I die? Sign me up.”

OK, then, are you ready to sign up for some of these:
Matthew 5:43-44
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you

Philippians 2:3-4
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

James 1:2
Count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

Luke 14:26-27
26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

Ummm…what?!?! Jesus is not teaching a new commandment of hating people. He is teaching about the cost of following Him. The clue is in Luke 14:33
…any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

It is super easy to give Jesus control of something you have no control over, but if you really want to test your level of commitment, let him manage something that you can.

Control is a powerful thing. Why do we feel the need to control everything? The easy answers are that we are sinful and prideful, that our flesh hates surrender, that we have a mindset of what we want to happen and God does as well, and the problem arises when those two don't line up, and yes, we are in a spiritual battle for sure.

But what's the root of all this? In a word, fear. We’re just afraid of what life looks like if we aren’t in control.

What’s crazy is that in reality, we don't have control. We just have the illusion of it. We think we can control outcomes, like relationships, the future, our health, but life is wildly unpredictable. You can take a person who has meticulously watched their health their entire life, and put them up against a person who’s had a Dr. Pepper and a doughnut every weekday morning for the last 15 years and the healthy person ends up with cancer.

You can do great in school and great in college and get out and land and incredible job knowing nothing of the stock market crash that is on the horizon.

You can try your hardest to keep your relationships together, but one failure ruins everything.

This is not an admonishment to not try, to not take care of your health or do what you can to plan for your future, and it's not an endorsement of not pouring into relationships.

But to think we can control outcomes, it's an illusion.

So what can we control? The only thing is to make sure you have Jesus. This is why he tells you to see him first in Matthew 6:33. This is why he makes statements like hating your father and mother to drill home the point that nothing should be more important than him.

You might not be able to dodge cancer, but you better know where you're going if cancer wins. You might not be able to stop that person from leaving, but you can do everything you can to be who you are supposed to be in Christ. You might not be able to impact the stock market, but you know the source of blessing is God and nothing else.

How do we deal with these fears? You have to understand that courage is not the opposite of fear. Love is.
1 John 4:16-18
16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

See, there is a part of us that is terrified of having to face God for the decisions we've made on earth. We are afraid of punishment, which is judgment. So one of the ways we eliminate fear in our lives is to understand, and actually live in, God's love for us. This isn't just some head knowledge, but experiential. This requires TIME SPENT WITH HIM. Love grows with presence, not presents. This is not love growing based on what you get from him, but love growing based on time spent with him. Be careful we don’t fall in love with his hand but not his heart.

Truth is, we can trust that God will do what he says simply because he loves us. He's already shown us that we can trust him by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins in Romans 5:8 Have you experienced that love?

The opposite of fear is love, but it is faith, too.
Hebrews 11:1
1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things we cannot see.

We often live in fear because of what we cannot see. Our mind will try to fill in the gaps and what lives in those gaps terrifies us. We get to this threshold where we know we have to make a decision to move forward, but between the threshold and where we know God wants us to be is unknown. Fear will tell us to look at what we cannot see and be afraid and succumb to it. But faith tells us to have confidence even when we can't see. Fear says, "what if,” but Faith says, "even if."

All of these things play a role in how we try to control our lives because of our fears, and that causes us to mismanage our lives. The fear of failure, the fear of missing out, the fear of being without, the fear of being alone, even the fear of success. All of these drive us to mismanagement of our lives. And when fear is the motivating factor behind our management style,
we not only live in fear, but we manage in it as well. We don't just manage out of it, we instilling those fears I mentioned into everything we are managing as well, like our families. By the way, this is how generational curses are perpetuated.

If we are going to shift how we manage our lives, away from fear and into faith and love, there are some things we have to do that are evidence of us being willing to trust God.

If your management style is causing you to leave a trail of brokenness, then you need to change. Theo Von - “If nothing changes, nothing changes.”

So what can you do to change so that you can better manage your life?

1. Embrace a new motivation
Up to this point, if your management style has been motivated by fear or not wanting to lose control, or anything else that is not of God, it's time to shift and embrace a new motivation for your management.

Matthew 6:21
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Think about how you manage your marriage, your parenting, even your relationship with Jesus. What's in your heart, because that is where you will find the motivating factor behind it.

Matthew 19:16-22
16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” 17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ 19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” 20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

His possessions are what had him, therefore his management style was dictated by that motivation. He wanted to have so badly, his life’s focus was getting. That’s lack! So when Jesus said to follow me, give, he mismanaged. Why? His money had his heart with lack as the motivator.

What has your heart? Because it is the source of your motivation.

Think of Jonah. We talked before about how he was terrified of going to face them based on their cruelty, but the Bible is very clear on why he didn't want to go to none of it at all:
Jonah 4:2
Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.

Jonah was motivated by revenge. What is the motivation of your heart? What should it be?

1 Corinthians 10:31
Whether you are eating or drinking, or whatever you are doing, do it all to the glory of God.

Is the motivation in your heart right now bringing glory to God? Or is it bringing glory to your flesh?

So how do I change my motivation? You have to be transformed.
Romans 12:2
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Of course that means Jesus has to be Lord of your life, but there are some things that have to change in you so that your motivations change. Those changes come from God’s Word.

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

Soul and Spirit. Psyche and Pneuma. Pneuma is breathe in Greek. The root of Psyche is to breathe. Psyche is the direct aftermath of God’s breath in our lives.

Reading the Bible is not about getting your star or doing your duty. It is the process by which God takes your motivations and transforms them to match his motivations. Even to the precision of God’s breath and your breathing.

If the Word can do this, don’t you think it can transform your motivations? But what about prayer? I can make prayer what I want it. “God told me…” But I cannot do that with the Word. Whether I try to change it or not, the Word remains the same.

We have to be so committed to the Word of God that it has the power to transform our motivations into God’s motivations.

Caveat: you have to obey it for it to transform you. If the Word is not challenging you, changing you, making you rethink, causing you to adjust, you might be reading it, but are you embracing it?

Let’s stay here for a moment, because let’s be honest, we have a harder time doing the Word than we do hearing it. Last week I read this verse: Proverbs 4:23
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

How many of you did it? Did you create boundaries? Say no to temptation Did you guard your heart from toxic things? Did you respond to God calling you to the altar?

James 1:21-25
21 …get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. 22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

I need a volunteer. I promise it will benefit you, so just trust me. Stand up. Turn around 360 degrees. Raise your right arm. Raise your left arm. Put them down. Yell hallelujah! Now come get this $20.

Zero hesitation following the commands. Why? You trusted that I would reward you. I even told you I would. “I promise it will benefit you, so just trust me.” Why is this so hard with God?

If you want the whole point of “embrace a new motivation,” it is simply this:
DO WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS.

For instance, forgive. “Well, preacher, you don’t understand.” I don’t have to understand your situation. All I have to understand is that God gave a command to forgive.

Serve. “Well, preacher, I just don’t know if its for me.”
1 Peter 4:10
Use your gifts to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace.
There is no ambiguity here.

I won’t even talk about money right here. You know what Malachi 3 tells you to do no matter how much dancing we do around it.

The first step to solving every problem in your life right now is to OBEY THE WORD. Do what the Bible tells you to do. It is that simple.

I am only giving you two points today and the second point is why we embrace a new motivation. if we are managing badly. It is why we obey the Bible.

First, embrace a new motivation, and second,

2. Create space for God to move
How would your life change if you actually did what the Bible told you to do? How would your life be different if you abandoned motivations that fed your flesh and embraced motivations that fed your spirit? You would create space for God to move, that’s what.

We create space all the time. Examples:
My grandparents will celebrate 73 years this year and we are celebrating on May 24. We are creating space to honor them. My family is going camping the 22-24th. We are creating space for our family to bond deeper and have fun. When you set aside time for God during your day, we are creating space for the Holy Spirit to move and for our relationship with him to grow. Maybe prayer time will be easier for you if you change the motivation to create space instead of do your duty.

When you reject your flesh and choose to obey the Word of God, it gives him space to prove his faithfulness. When you give the whole tithe, God opens the windows of Heaven. Interestingly enough, tithing is the only place in the Bible where God says we can test him on it. Give God 3 months of faithful tithing and watch what happens.

When you choose to forgive, you will be blown away at how God either completely takes your need for justice away, or else he gives grace to deal with it.

When you choose to trust God for that job situation, it creates space for God to work all things together for good where he unleashes his favor over you.

The issue is that we are trying to create space for us to move, not God.
We try to control the situation and control the outcome.

But when we try to control everything, we take the pen out of God's hand and we place it in our own hand. I don’t know about you, but I am horrible at controlling the chaos around me. I like to think I have a handle on all of it, but when I manage in my flesh, my results are fleshly. We think this is creating a better outcome for us, but it is robbing God of the ability to do the miraculous in our lives. And that stops us from being able to see him for who he really is!

Remember John 6:63
It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh benefits nothing.

How good have you been at writing your story?

Genesis 15:1-6
1 Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”
2 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. 3 You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.” 4 Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” 5 Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.

In the very next chapter, Abram tried to control the outcome and Ishmael was born.

I want to tell you three things about this very quickly. First, Abram’s motivation was in what he didn’t have, so he let what he didn’t have force him to mismanage what he did have, which was the promise of God. I don’t have time but goodness that is a word. Second, God’s promise remained in spite of Abram’s mismanagement. So if you’ve mismanaged, God isn’t finished yet. This should be wildly encouraging to all of us.

But in Genesis 21, Isaac, the son of God’s promise was born, prompting Sarah to demand Hagar and Ishmael leave. This broke Abraham’s heart as Ishmael was his son and by then nearing 20 years old.

Abraham had the wrong motivation and he mismanaged. In spite of his mismanagement, God’s promise remained.

But third, the promise and the mismanagement couldn’t live in the same house. Compromise and holiness can’t live in the same house. Bad financial decisions and blessing can’t live in the same house. Loving your wife and hating being around her can’t live in the same house. The orphan spirit and sonship can’t live in the same house.

What am I telling you?
I know you want to live in God’s promises, but that will require you to deal with the mismanagement in your life, which includes the motivation behind the mismanagement..

I know it is hard, but some of us need to go way past embracing a new motivation by dealing with our mismanagement because that is the only way we can make room for God to move.

What does that mean to you today?

You can’t go back and change the past, but what needs to change today?

Is your motivation wrong and causing mismanagement in your life? Is your heart being led by the flesh and its desires or by the Spirit? Are you allowing those fleshly motivations to influence your management?

Are you giving God space to move, or are you demanding he move how you want? Mismanagement makes Ishmaels that we have to deal with. You have any of those you need to repent of today?

How do you respond?
God change my heart so my motivations can change.
God forgive me for allowing my flesh to control my life.
God I repent of how badly I have mismanaged.
God I am making space for you right now to move in my life.

Let’s pray.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

How does he want you to respond?