Gregory Dickow - Winning the Battles of Life, The Most Important Thing About YOU
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Winning the battles of life, winning the battles of life, and remember that I mentioned there were three things that the great military author Sun Tzu wrote that was a true statement when he wrote it. And it's true today to win any battle, you have to know three things. You have to know yourself. You have to know your enemy and you have to know your weapons. And this has been proven throughout history, gang, that every military battle that has ever been won has been won because of those three things. And every military battle that has been lost has been lost because of one of those three things. But he said and he chronicled this and showed the pattern and showed the historical data that validated the truth, that in every battle you can win any battle when you know yourself, when you know your enemy and when you know your weapons.
Now, we've talked about this last week, and I want to pick up from there because as I was thinking about knowing yourself, sometimes we can get a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of ourselves. Sometimes we when we in our effort to know ourselves, we're focusing on the wrong things. We're focusing on our flaws. We're focusing on our mistakes. We're focusing on what is lacking in our lives. And so we don't we're not necessarily getting an accurate or complete interpretation of who we are. Knowing yourself is vital to winning any battle. But and there's battles there, spiritual battles, there's emotional battles. There's battles that come against us all the time in our finances, in our health, in our emotions, in our mind, in our finances and in our relationships, in any area of our life.
So to win any battle, you have to know those three things. But to know yourself, I want to just drill down on that for a moment, because to know yourself what is so essential is that you understand yourself correctly, because too often we judge ourselves and define ourselves by our mistakes. We define ourselves by our past. We define ourselves by what a teacher said about us, what a parent said about us, what the devil has said about us. We define ourselves by our flaws or our shortcomings. We define ourselves by our size, our weight, our height, our color. We define ourselves by our race, by our economic status. We define ourselves by how pretty we are according to the world's definition or what we lack in appearance. And we got to stop defining ourselves that way.
That's not who you are. Who you are is not based on how you grew up. It's not based on the family you grew up with. Who you are is completely based on who you think God is and who you understand God to be. And here's why I want you to know that, because you can't understand yourself effectively until you understand what God is like. Because who were you made in the image of the Bible doesn't say you're made in the image of your uncle. You made in the image of your of your father. You're made in the image of your mother that you made in the image of your grandparents and says you're made in the image of God, you're made in the image of God. Am I in the right place? You're still.
So look at what it says here in Romans, Chapter 12 or three from the message Bible, and it says, I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you living. Then he says, as every one of you does in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves. I want you to see that he says it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves. Why now? Why is it important that we not misinterpret ourselves? Because to win any battle, you've got to know yourself. You've got to know the enemy and you've got to know your weapons. But if you don't interpret yourself properly, you can't win in the battles of life.
So that's why he says it's really important that you don't misinterpret yourselves and notice what he says as people who are bringing this goodness to God, no, God brings it all to you, the only accurate way to understand ourselves. So to win any battle, we got to know ourselves. But the only accurate way to know ourselves or understand ourselves is by what God is. It's by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. In other words, what we are and what we do for him is important. But what we are and what we do for him is a reflection of what he is and what he does for us. So it's important that we gain a proper understanding of what he is. What is he like? What is God's nature? What is God really like? Because when we interpret him incorrectly, we then interpret ourselves incorrectly. And if we interpret ourselves incorrectly, guess what? We can't win any battle.
You've got to know yourself correctly. You've got to know yourself the way you really are from God's point of view, made in God's image. And today I'm going to answer this question or make the statement that I'm going to share with you the number one most important thing about you, the number one most important thing about you. If you've ever wondered what's the most important thing about you? Is it your family, your upbringing is the most important thing about your job, your business, your career, your goals, the vision that you have for your life. None of those things are the number one most important thing. What I'm going to tell you is the most important thing about you. And once you get a hold of this, it will catapult you into the most victorious, successful life that you could possibly imagine. Can anybody say amen?
If you could grab a hold of what I'm saying here, you would understand this. The bottom line is that you become. What you believe about God, you become what you believe about God. Let me let me let me show you something. Everybody agree with me that the Bible says in Genesis one twenty six, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. So we're made in the image of God. Right. Come on, help me now. We're made in the image of God. Right. So if we're made in the image of God, then having any other image is where everything goes wrong in our lives. If we're made in the image of God and this is the secret, this is the beginning of everything, is that who are we know yourself. To understand who you are and know yourself, you have to understand what God is like so you can understand what you're like.
So in Exodus, chapter 20 verse for God's given the Ten Commandments and notice what he says in verse four, Exodus Chapter 20, verse four, he says, You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth or under the earth. What was he saying here? He's saying the thing that causes you to commit idolatry, to idolize something is to have a false image or a different image. One translation says you shall make no graven images. You shall make no graven images, which he calls eye idols or idolatry. It's not because God doesn't like people working with wood. It's not because God doesn't like statues. It's not because God doesn't like little wooden dolls that people make and carve. It's not God doesn't like carving and God doesn't like creativity.
But what God doesn't like is he doesn't like you creating the image of God that you want, but rather he wants you to understand what he's really like when he doesn't want is he doesn't want you making up your idea of what God is like. He wants that to come directly from him. He wants you to have his vision of what he's like. So you'll have a proper understanding of what you're like. You see, when he told people don't make any graven images, it wasn't because he's threatened by other gods or idols. There are no other gods in this world. He is the only God. Look over here in Psalm 115, verse eight, and he says. Those who make them will become like them. Everyone who trusts in them, those who make them, will become like them. Those who make idols will become like them.
In other words, whatever image of God that you create, that's what you'll become like unless you have a proper understanding of what God is like and you'll begin to live and act like him. He says you'll become like whatever you idolize, whatever you worship, you'll become like that. Whatever you whatever image you have of God, that's what you're going to become like. That's what your life is going to gravitate towards. Do you get this? If you if you think God if you think God is an angry God, you're going to become an angry person. If you think God is a judgmental God, you're you're going to become a judgmental person. If you think God is a generous God, you're going to become a generous person. It is exactly how our life unfolds.
Our life unfolds in direct proportion to our view of what God is like. If you cannot possibly believe that God is love and not end up loving. It's not possible if you truly believe that God is love, you will end up taking on the characteristics of love because you will always you will always gravitate towards becoming the kind of person that is in direct reflection of what God is like and what you believe God is like. You can't be like a God. You can't be like the God who you don't know if you don't if you don't know what he's like, you can't imitate him. The Bible says imitate God as dear children of your creator in Ephesians Chapter five. How can you imitate him when you don't know what he's like?
Now I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you the secret to everything going on in your life. Everything in your life boils down to these four or five things, your perspective, how you look at things. That's number one. Everything in life boils down to these things already. Your perspective. That's how you look at things. Your expectations, that's what you expect of things, your emotions. How you feel things, your response to life circumstances, how you respond to things and your decisions, how you act upon things, I'll say it again. Everything in life boils down to these five things, your perspective, how you look at things, your expectations, what you expect of things, your emotions, how you feel about things. Your reactions are responses to life and to life circumstances, how you react to things or how you respond to things and your decisions, how you act upon things.
Now, if you will get a hold of this, that every one of these things, every one of these five things, that's all that life boils down to, how many you know, your perspective determines if you're happy or unhappy. It's not how much money you have, it's how grateful you are for what you do have, it's perspective, how many know your expectations, your life boils down to your your perspective, your expectations. Look, you're going to you're going to have faith when you expect good things to happen. You're going to have fear when you expect bad things to happen. So your expectations matter. Your emotions matter. We're emotional beings, there's power in our emotions and we're emotional people and we need to understand what should shape our emotions. And we're people that react to life circumstances and we respond when life hits us and how we respond to how like to when life hits us is what determines the outcome of our lives.
What hits you is not what determines. What hits you is not what determines the outcome of your life, but how you respond to it is what determines the outcome of your life and your decisions. Your decisions are what determines the actions that you take, the choices that you make and the actions that you take are based on the decisions you make. So why am I bringing up these five things? Because these five things are what all of life boils down to, these five things. And yet. Every one of these things is shaped 100 percent. Shaped, guided and controlled ultimately. By what you think about God? What you think about God? So guess what, if you think God is judgmental and God is mad at you, then it will shape how you look at life, your perspective, you'll have a negative outlook on life.
You have a negative. You'll always see the bad. You'll always see the negative. You'll always see the the the the thing that hurts and the thing that bothers you and the offense and and the negativity, it'll all that's how you look at life when you think God is is angrier or mad at you or judgmental, it will shape your expectations. Guess what? You'll begin to expect judgment. You'll begin to expect bad things to happen in your life. What more will you know, what else would an angry God do but bring you bad things in your life? What else? What else does an angry person do but bring you bad things in life so an angry God will bring you bad things in life. So it shapes your expectations. It shapes your emotions. If you're never sure what God is like, he's he seems like sometimes he's mad, sometimes he's happy. He's up and down. I don't know what God's going to be like. It makes him feel like God schizophrenic. And guess what? So your emotions are constantly up and down.
You see your emotions take on and are shaped by your view of God. What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about God? Is it that God is good? Is it that God is generous? Is that is it that God is love? All of those things are true, or is it? Well, I'm not sure if God's going to come through for me wrong. That's a wrong view of God. It really is. It really isn't that. It's just a wrong belief. It's a wrong belief because of the nature or the character that you ascribe to God. If you think he's got bad character, then you are going to believe bad things. Well, God might not come through for me. Well, that's saying that God doesn't have good character, that God doesn't keep his promise, that God doesn't keep his word.
You see, it really is it's less about what you believe about about the situation. And it's 100 percent about what you believe about God, because if you believe he's good, then guess what? Now you believe no matter what the situation looks like, God knows how to turn it around, that God is so good he's going to make it better. Whoa, this is what has changed my life, I look at all my inconsistencies. Anybody got any of those? I look at all of my flaws, anybody know they got some of those, I look at all my weaknesses, my inconsistencies and my flaws and what should depress me does not because I'm not because my perspective isn't shaped by my inconsistencies. My perspective is shaped by his consistency.
My expectations aren't shaped by my holiness and my ability to keep my promises, my expectations are shaped by God's ability and commitment to keep his promises. My emotions are not shaped by my idiosyncrasies, my personality, my emotions are not shaped by the guilt that I feel about the mistakes that I've made or the joy that I feel about the good things that I've done. My emotions are shaped by the fact that I have peace flowing like a river because I truly see God as a good God. And no matter what is up and down about me, there's nothing up and down about him. You see this? This is what this is what changed my life. Because what shapes your life, changes your life and what our lives need to be shaped by is our view of the goodness of God or what God is like.
Now, let me say something about this to you, because if you go back to Genesis Chapter three, this is what it was at the root of all that Satan was trying to do in Eve's life. And this is what he's trying to do in our lives. And I know what we went we went over some of this last time we were together. But I want you to see this in Genesis, chapter three, verse five. He says. For God knows, God knows, first five. He says, God knows the day you eat from that tree. Your eyes are going to be opened and you're going to be like God and you're going to know good and evil. So guess what? What is Satan doing? He's painting a picture about what God is like so that Eve will question what God is like and then evil believe a lie about what God is like, a distorted view of God.
And then, when she has a distorted view of God, what's she going to have a distorted view about as well? She's going have a distorted view about herself. And then when you have a distorted view about yourself, you can't win the battles of life. Come on, are you are you here in this? So what Satan is after is giving her a distorted view of God. So what does he do? He says, God knows the day you eat from that, you're going to be like him. You're not going to die. He's lying to you. He doesn't tell the truth. He's lying to you. So, notice what he does. He attacks. He assaults the character of God. Satan is constantly working to assault and attack the character and the nature of God in your mind.
So, in your mind, you doubt his goodness in your mind. You doubt his consistency in your mind. You doubt whether he's a truth teller. But you know what? He is God. And he is not a man. He cannot lie. Not only does he not lie, he cannot lie. It is impossible for him to lie. That's his character. That's his nature. It's impossible. You can rest and have peace and confidence when you know that God can't lie. So when you look at his promise, when you know his character, you can say God can't lie. So that promise is going to come to pass. Oh, there's so much liberty. There's so much freedom in this. And look at what it says. So God knows God. God is is he first of all, he's lying to you. And secondly, he knows if you eat that, you're going to be like him. So he doesn't want you to be like him. He doesn't he's holding out on you. He doesn't want you to have everything you think you should have.
So guess what? So she questions God's goodness. She questions questions God's character. She has a she has a distorted view of God. So guess what? A distorted view of God gives her a distorted view of herself. And then what happens now? She sees the tree and it looks good to make her wise. And so she eats from it. In other words, she wants more and she wants to be more than what she already is. And why does she want more and why does she want to be more than what she already is? Because she doesn't understand and believe who she already is. And when you don't believe who you are, you'll always want more and you'll always want to be more. So you will always make your decisions based on compensating for feeling inferior. You'll feel the devil wants you to feel inferior to God and to what God made you to be. He wants you to feel inferior to that.
So all your decisions will be to compensate for that inferiority, to somehow make you feel better about yourself. So you're driven to succeed. So you'll feel better about yourself. When God doesn't want you to succeed, to feel better about yourself. He wants you to feel better about yourself and understand how valuable you are. And then you will succeed. Are you hearing this so so what will happen is what you do then is you you now vie for people's attention because if you feel inferior, then if I can get this person's attention, if I can get this person's accolades, if I can get this person's approval, then I can feel better about myself. So now you're making decisions in order to get somebody's approval. So you're going to make bad decisions.
You see how everything in your life is shaped by what you believe about God, which then shapes what you believe about yourself, which then shapes your perspective, your expectations, your emotions, your reactions and your decisions. And name me one thing in life that doesn't get solved with the right perspective, with the right emotions, with the right expectations, namely one thing in life that doesn't get fixed and doesn't get it, doesn't get solved and doesn't have anything to do with the right reactions and the right decisions. Everything in life boils down to those five things, everything in life. The truth will make you free if you'll accept this truth. Let me tell you something.
This is why the enemy of your soul, the devil, puts all of his effort. Listen to me, he doesn't put all of his effort in trying to get people into hell, he doesn't put all of his effort in to try to get people sick or try to get people to do evil or bad things. His effort is 100 percent intended to distort your view of God, to distort your view of God. And this is why Jesus came in first. John 3h. Look at what it says first. John eight. He said, the one who practice the sin is of the devil. The devil is sin. From the beginning, the son of God appeared for this purpose. So He clears out all the distorted views. He said, Look what? Why did Jesus come? The Son of God appeared. The Son of God is manifest for this purpose that he might destroy the works of the devil.
And listen, people, what are the works of the devil to give you a wrong, distorted view of God. So a distorted view of God will defeat you. Listen, a distorted view of God will defeat you. It will confuse you. It will hurt your ability to have successful relationships, to feel good about life and to feel good about yourself. It'll distort your view of scripture. You'll look at scripture as judgmental rather than a scripture that will set you free all scriptures inspired by God. And it empowers you with righteousness. And it tells you who you are. It tells you who you are in Christ. It tells you what you can do. It tells you what God's giving you, which when you when you look at scripture the wrong way, it's because you're looking at God the wrong way and you see this vicious cycle.
You look at God the wrong way. So you look at scripture the wrong way. You think scriptures judging you, but it's not judging you. It's freeing you. The truth makes you free. The word of God is powerful. To set you free, not to condemn you, not to beat you up, that's what religion does and that's what religious preachers do. But the Bible builds you up, the Bible edify you, why? Because that's what God is like and so that you begin to see scripture the correct way and then you begin to understand God the correct way. When you read the scripture correctly, you understand God correctly. That's why Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. That's why he said the works that I do, I only do when I see the Father do.
So what? So Jesus is the picture. Jesus is the mirror of what God is like. So when you read the Bible, you should read the Bible to discover the nature of God. Because when you understand the nature of God and how good he is and how generous he is, when you realize in the Bible Jesus never came and judged anybody, never came and condemned anybody, never came and hurt anybody, never came and brought sickness. He brought healing. He didn't bring deafness. He brought hearing. He didn't bring blindness. He brought sight. He didn't bring bondage. He brought freedom. He didn't bring he didn't write. He didn't bring condemnation. He brought forgiveness. He didn't bring poverty. He brought food. He multiplied the bread.
If it was if he was a god of scarcity and poverty, he would have taken what could have fed 5000 and he would have only fed a few people with it and kept the rest to himself. No gods, not like that. He takes five loaves and two fish and feeds thousands. Why? Because that's how good God is. And that's his nature. And his nature is to take and to give and to bless and to heal and to deliver and to set free. And when you see we look at Jesus life and all you can see is goodness. When you look at Jesus life, all you can see is blessing. When you look at Jesus life, all you can see is love.
I can see his compassion and move with compassion to heal the sick and move of compassion. He touched the coffin and moved with compassion. He fed the multitudes and move of compassion. He prayed and with compassion he brought the children to himself and moved to capacity. Elevated women. He elevated children. He made all men equal. He made all people equal. Why? Because that's how good God is. And our distorted views are distorted views of God is what's destroying everything good in this world.