Deposing King Me - #238

There can be no victory where there is no surrender. You will not know real, lasting, freedom-giving victory in your life until you first surrender the throne of your heart over to the King of kings.

Learn more about the ministry of The Purity Coach at  http://www.thepuritycoach.com

Transcript

As long as you take breath, King Me is going to hound you. The King loves the throne. The King craves the attention. The King will fight you tooth and nail to hold on to the title as king of your heart & life. Dethroning, and deposing King Me isn’t going to be easy. However, it can be done, and it’s worth the fight.

Welcome to The Point of Purity Podcast. A powerful weekly study filled to the brim with the all the tools from Scripture you will ever need to build a lasting life of Biblical purity and godliness. I’m your host Steve Etner – author, National Speaker, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry and this is Episode #238 entitled “Deposing King Me” 

This week’s episode is part two of a study on the dethroning and deposing of King Me. We saw last week that to win the battle you must choose to live daily according to God’s Word – and, as Galatians 5:16 commands, “walk by the Spirit.” I want you to think about this:  When you choose to give in to the sinful desires that constantly plague you, you are choosing to allow King Me to climb back up on the throne. You are choosing to ignore the desires of the Holy Spirit in favor of the desires of your flesh – and that never ends well.

Ok, so, Galatians 5:16 commands – “walk by the Spirit” and when we do, God promises that we “will not gratify the sinful desires of the flesh.” How does a Christian “walk by the Spirit?” Using the analogy of walking, there are three steps you must choose to take daily if you are going to faithfully walk by the Spirit.

Last week we looked at Step #1: in the battle for the throne of your heart, you must daily choose to fully and completely  surrender to God. You must acknowledge deep in the core of your being that you are totally and completely helpless to do good (to honor and glorify God) on your own—you need God’s help.

Consider this: There can be no victory where there is no surrender. You will not know real, lasting, freedom-giving victory in your life until you first surrender the throne of your heart over to the King of kings.

OK. So, if you’re going to faithfully walk by the Spirit, Step #1 is to choose daily to completely surrender ALL to God. The second step you must choose to take daily is to fully trust God. We see this in Psalm 25. In verse one he is choosing to lift up his soul to God.

Now I want you to notice in verse two that after David surrenders his soul over to God, he then says, “O my God, in you I trust.” Once again, think carefully about what David is saying here — “Oh my God, in you I trust!” David had just made a significant sacrifice. He had knelt before the King of kings and surrendered his entire being, his entire heart, his entire life over to God.

Let’s pause for a moment here to understand how God views the promises you make to Him.

·      Numbers 30:2 warns, “When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.” 

·      Deuteronomy 23:21 reminds us that “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin.”

·      And Ecclesiastes 5:4-6 gives this command, “When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest ... ‘My vow was a mistake.’ Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands?”

So, I submit that David understood the ramifications of his personal commitment to God. “O Lord, I lift up, I surrender, I fully yield all control of my soul, my life to you.” David didn’t make that vow lightly, and God didn’t take that vow lightly.

So, David then cries out to God, “In you I trust!” In essence he was saying, “God, I meant what I just said; now I need your help to accomplish it!” Sometimes believing in God is the easy part.

Here is a question I want you to work through. Why do so many Christians struggle with trusting in God? In fact, I challenge you to personalize that question. Why do you struggle with trusting in God?

Imagine two college students going out on their first date. As they sit across from each other enjoying their pizza, she looks deeply into his eyes, smiles, and says, “If we’re going to go out on a 2nd date, then before this date is through, I want full access to your bank account, a copy of the keys to your car, your apartment, your safety deposit box, and I want all your passwords.” How do you think he would react? Any sane guy is going to say, “No way, princess! Not in your wildest dreams is that going to happen!” Why? Because he doesn’t trust her.

Now let me ask you this: Why doesn’t he trust her? Simply put, he doesn’t trust her because he doesn’t yet know her. How does he get to know her? He must intentionally invest time daily to be around her, listen to her, learn about her, study her, talk with her, and bask in the joy of her presence. As he develops an understanding of her, as he begins to truly know her heart and her character, he then can begin to trust her.

It’s the same way with God. God is looking deeply into your eyes, and with a warm loving smile says, “I want full access to your heart—every nook and cranny, every want, every desire, every passion, every thought and every decision, every worry and every fear. I want you to fully trust me with your health, your career, your finances, your possessions, your marriage, your kids – I want it all.” Many times, we struggle with that. Many times, we’re afraid of what that means. Why? Truthfully? Because we don’t trust Him. And why don’t we trust Him? Because we don’t yet really know Him. And why don’t we know Him? Because we aren’t walking with Him, talking with Him, listening to Him talk with us – we aren’t investing time daily in getting to know Him.

To know God is to trust God. Psalm 9:10 says, “Those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.” Isaiah 26:3-4 says, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.” (Isaiah 26:3-4)

You’re probably familiar with the words of Proverbs 3:5-6 that command us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” That’s not just a nice suggestion, it’s a command—trust in the Lord with ALL your heart. For that to happen you must “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18)

The main question we’ve been examining in this episode is this: How do I not only dethrone King Me, but depose the King - keeping self off the throne of my heart for good? We’ve seen that we must live daily by God’s Word, and we must walk daily by God’s Spirit. To walk by the Spirit, I must first completely surrender to God, then I must fully trust God.  

And then, Step #3 I must unconditionally obey God. In Psalm 19:7 David makes a powerful statement about God’s Word. “The law of the Lord is perfect!” All of God’s law is perfect. Is that how you view the Bible? Can you say, “the law of (God’s) mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces”? (Psalm 119:72) Another way to put that verse is like this: God’s Word is better to me than (and fill in the blank with something that King Me loves and doesn’t want to give up).

Can you honestly cry out, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day”? (Psalm 119:97) If you want genuine and lasting victory over the reign of King Me in your heart, dig into your Bible. “Read in it all the days of (your) life ... learn to fear the Lord (your) God by (obeying) all the words of (God’s) law and these statutes, and (do) them.” (Deuteronomy 17:19)

Listen carefully to God’s command here (Joshua 1:8): don’t let “this Book of the Law (don’t let God’s Word)... depart from your mouth, but ... meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous” — and then you will successfully dethrone and depose King Me!

Are you doing what God wants you to do? God has a code of conduct for His children, a certain behavior He expects from each of us. God’s code of conduct gives us the tools we need to unseat King Me and maintain a close relationship with Him. They are God’s boundaries that give us an amazing freedom in serving Him—when we choose to obey them.

Oh, my friend, please don’t look at Scripture as a set of rules handed to you by a tyrant of a God who is distant, detached, and doesn’t care about you. Don’t view God as someone who is sitting up in Heaven just waiting for you to screw up, so He can zap you. Your Bible isn’t a disciplinary manual filled with dos and don’ts.

In 2 Chronicles we see that King Uzziah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord ... as long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success.” (2 Chronicles 26:4-5) Your battle is not with God. Your fight is not with the King of kings and Lord of lords. The battle is with your flesh—King Me wants to dominate your life. When you dethrone and depose King Me for the purpose of bringing honor and glory to God, He promises to give you “rest on every side.” (2 Chronicles 14:7) 

When you pursue anything but God in your life, you make yourself, your goals, your desires, and your wants—even your fears—a “god” in your life. You end up giving King Me exactly what he wants. What you worship is what you will serve. God is abundantly clear that serving anything or anyone other than Him is unacceptable.

OK, I’m going to hit the pause button here until next week’s episode. In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about today’s study, or if you’re interested in learning more about The Pure Man Ministry (what we do to help men across the globe find freedom and victory over sexual sin), be sure to visit our website to see the multitude of resources we’ve made available to you – you can find our website at ThePurityCoach.com     

One of those resources I would like to highlight for you here is my book entitled “Removing the ‘I’ from L.I.F.E. – the Dethroning of King Me” available on Amazon.com. Let’s face it, life gets messed up when King Me is sitting on the throne of your heart. You know I’m right. To become the man or woman who is living a life that consistently honors God in all you say and do, you must first remove the “I” from your life. It’s not about you. It never was. It never will be.     

In this interactive Bible Study, “Removing the ‘I’ from L.I.F.E.” examines such questions as: Why do I keep doing the things I don’t want to do? Why can’t I gain victory over the stupid issues in my life? Why can’t I be consistent in living a life that glorifies God? How on earth do I live a life that is fully surrendered to God? The answers to these questions, and many more, are found in Scripture, and my book “Removing the ‘I’ from L.I.F.E.” helps you unpack them and understand how to apply them to your life.     

So, if real change – lasting change – is going to happen, you need a different leader sitting behind the big desk in the oval office of your heart. Whomever is reigning in your heart will be calling the shots in your life. You must choose to remove the “I” from L.I.F.E. and allow God to take your place – His rightful place.      So head on over to Amazon.com and purchase your copy of “Removing the ‘I’ from L.I.F.E. – the Dethroning of King Me” or just look up my name, Steve Etner, and purchase your copy of any of my books today.

And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, let me encourage you to do so today so you won’t miss any of our upcoming episodes! So, until next time this is Steve Etner – author, National Speaker, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry – reminding you that if you are going to glorify God in your everyday living, He must first be glorified in your every moment thinking.