Fight To Win TV with Kurt Owen

How to Be Free: Episode 4

Your Problem Is Not Your Problem. What are you doing with the Word? Find out how this question affects your problem and much more on this episode of Fight To Win with Pastor Kurt Owen.

Request the Free Offer:
https://www.fighttowin.tv

Learn More, Register for Events & Donate:
https://www.kurtowen.com/

Prefer to Watch the Video?
https://youtu.be/84O9FDjdvRM

Become a supporter of this podcast
https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fight-to-win-tv-with-kurt-owen--5638799/support.

Duration:: 28m
Broadcast on:: 18 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Hello, I'm Curdo, and today I want to prove to you that your problem is not your problem. It's what you're doing with the word that your problem. Also in tactical tips, I want to talk to you about where you should target when you're trying to defend yourself. To succeed in life, we have to fight. That's why winners train spirit, soul, and body. We have to be ready. Thought your typical minister, Kurt Owen left a successful career in private investigation and executive protection for the ministry over 20 years ago. His simple, practical application of God's word will reveal how much Jesus loves you and give you the ability to fight to win. Now get ready for a tactical tip from Pastor Kurt. Hello, I'm Kurt Owen. On today's tactical tip, I want to talk to you about targets on the body for self-defense. You know, most people, if I start talking about targets that they should utilize, they think of the groin, maybe the eyes, and you know what, those are good targets. A lot of times, people protect their face, though, right? Where you can hit, you can hit in the solar plexus. This is it right below that V of your ribs and stuff like that. You hit that pretty hard. Listen, if they can't breathe, they can't fight. The other thing that a lot of people don't think about is joints, elbows, knees, the instep, right at the door of the foot connects to the lower part of your leg, right? That's a good place that if you strike that, you can begin to immobile them. In fact, one of the most frustrating things in the world for me is watching a movie and they knock the bad guy down, and then they just run off, and this guy is trying to kill them, and people say, "Well, what would you do? Would you jump around them and kick them in the head?" No, because that might be difficult, but you know what they won't defend? Their ankle. And so what I would do is I would jump on that ankle and crush that ankle, and I guarantee they're not going to be catching up to me anytime soon. So think about other body targetting, not just tissues, but joints. Hello I'm Crito, and today on Fight to Win, we're going to continue talking about how to be free and that that freedom comes through discipleship. Now, I want you to understand that I know that's probably, I understand that's probably not what you want to hear. That my freedom's going to come through me becoming a disciple, because the vast majority of people really want life just to come to them and them not have to do anything, right? We live in a society today that is like, "I want you to pay me. I want to go out and get whatever degree I want, right, even if it's in underwater basket weaving. And I want you to pay me a six-figure salary, I want to be able to work from home, and I only want to work 20 hours a week. And I understand that's the way a lot of people are. Unfortunately, that does not bring freedom in your Christian walk. Now in our circles and things, we more ascribe things to the grace of God, well, grace has provided everything so I don't have to do anything. Well, in acknowledging that grace has provided everything, you are a believer, but that does not necessarily mean you are a disciple. Because after you've accepted that grace has provided everything, what is your response? How are you releasing faith in that? How, what are you doing? Now I don't have to do anything. That's works, brother. That's works. No, it would be works to try to earn what grace has provided. It would be works to try to earn the love of God. It would be works to try to earn the blessing of God. But it is not legalistic works for you to acknowledge that God has done good to you and now you are responding to his goodness by receiving it and then walking out the way he's told you life should be. That is not legalism. Now you can turn it into legalism. You can turn anything into legalism, really. Anytime you think you're doing something, I mean you can say I've got to go for a walk every day if not God's not going to love me. You've turned it into legalism. You could say that I've got to pray every day if not God won't love me and God won't help me. Legalism. But on the other side of it I could say I'm going to pray every day because Paul said we should pray without ceasing. That's what the word says. He's my Lord. He's freely provided everything by grace. And so my response is to follow after him and do what he said. Now the Bible calls that discipleship. And so we're here in John 8 verse 31 and he says then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him. Now notice here they believe him. So this is not somebody who thinks he's a quack or a cooke. This is somebody that actually believes that he means what he says. And it says if you abide, Jesus said this to those that believed him. If you abide in my word, you're my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. This is freedom comes from discipleship. By the way, this is the reason that God wants you to do things. This is the reason that God commands you to live a life a certain way because it brings freedom. Okay, I remember, and I'm not going to get this quote exact, but there was a guy who's about 90 years old and he was Charles Darwin for most pupil, disciple. And they were interviewing him and the interviewer asked this question. He says to the man, he says, "What do you attribute to such a rapid acceptance of the theory of evolution?" Okay, what do you attribute it to? And by the reporter's own acknowledgement, he was expecting the man to say, "Well, we have all this evidence, which they don't have. We have all this and all that other stuff." He's expecting him to point to a scientific answer and yet this is what the man said. He said, "Well, I suppose if it is not the way we have put it forth, then we must acknowledge there is a God and if we acknowledge there is a God, we would be obligated to live life the way he said." Think about that. He wanted to believe in the theory of evolution because he didn't want to become a disciple. He did not want to acknowledge a God and then if he acknowledged a God, he would need to respond to him. But see, a lot of Christians have found a way to do both, right? I've found a way to do both, right? I'm willing to acknowledge you, but I'm still not going to do what you said and you're not a disciple and you're not going to walk in freedom. And then one of the things that has happened over the years is the fact that we have had multitudes of people, in my opinion, lead people into deception as though that once you get saved, and I call these people people who think they understand grace because they don't. I don't understand grace fully. I don't know anything yet as odd to know it, but I understand grace more than these yahoos because their thought on grace is God's given us everything by grace. I don't have to do anything full stop. I can live whatever way I want to. I don't have to change my life. I don't have to do anything. Well, that's true. If you follow it up with, I don't have to do anything to get God to love me. It's true that I could say I don't have to do anything to get God to bless me, but in order for that blessing to show up in your life, for that love to show up in your life, you're going to have to respond and do some stuff. And then we get some people that say this. They say, "Well, that's just bondage. You're just trying to be people into bondage. You're telling them that they should pray and you're telling them they should read their Bible. You're telling them that they should abide in the Word." Now notice that, to literally live there, to live with, that's just bondage. That's just bondage. You're judging me. You're condemning me. No, I'm trying to help you, but here, let me put it to you differently. Go with me to Luke chapter 6. This is a story told, or a parable, told by the one that brought grace and truth. And this is what it says. We're in verse 46 where he asks a very good question, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say?" That's a good question, isn't it? Why do we call him Lord if we don't do what he says? Why do we call him Lord and vote contrary to his principles? Why do we call him Lord and act contrary to his Word? You know, and remember the great commission, right, go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you. What does that say? You teach people to become disciples, and a disciple is a discipline one. How much discipline do you have in your life? What kind of spiritual disciplines are operating in your life? What sort of discipline is operated by God's do this, don't do that? And I'm not even talking about the scriptures. I'm talking about when he tells you not to open your mouth and you do anyway, right? What about giving when he tells you to give and you refuse to? Where is that? Where are you at with that? Now, so we call him Lord, Lord, and why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say? Now, notice what he gets into next, "Whoever comes to me, and hears my sayings and does them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against the house and could not shake it for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation against which the stream beat vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruin of the house was great." Now, there's a lot in this, a lot. First off, let's address this because I think this is important. Jesus, evidently, he makes a statement, he says, "Whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them," what did Jesus, what was the point of Jesus' message that both of these men would have heard? Apparently the message was how to build a house without, that will can never be shaken, how to build a house that cannot be knocked down. Now, how do we know that? How do we know that that was the message? Because the guy that did it, that's what happened to him, okay? Now, these guys actually attend the same church, right? How do we know that? Because they both heard the same sayings. They both were sitting there when the message came forth, the teaching came forth to help them, to bless them, to cause their lives to be better. They both heard the same message, right? Now, this also gets into something else that's pretty important is the fact that Jesus isn't picking winners and losers. I mean, think about what this is saying, because today people are like, "Well, my house got knocked down, but that was just the will of God, he's trying to teach me something in it." Really? You don't think he was trying to teach you something before that happened that would have prevented the house from getting knocked down? You know, I got saved because I got sick, and I got very, very sick, and I caused me to do some terrible things, right? Do you know that God had been dealing with me for years before that to turn my life over to him? He didn't want my house, people say, "Aren't you glad God did that to you to bring you to him?" I mean, I did it to myself, and the devil helped along the way. These are truths that most people don't talk about, and they don't feed on, they don't even like to consider it. That's the whole reason that I had a product here, I don't know where it went. We've got a new product for you called How to Be Free, and I'd show it to you, but it's gone. Anyway, Jeff's pointing at something, "Oh, I can't reach it from here." Here's the thing, we got a new product called How to Be Free. I don't know how many hours it is yet, but it's hours upon hours of teaching to help you with this so that you can hear these truths, you can hear them over and over again, because most people have tried to tell people that God is knocking pokes houses down. That's the reason I want you to go to kurtowin.com and get the free series, How to Be Free. There's got to be at least 20 messages in there. It'll help you, and it's all on discipleship, it's all on the things I'm telling you. These two guys are sitting there, and they hear the same sayings. Now, some people say, "Well, God blessed the one whose house stood," and he wouldn't bless the guy whose house fell. No, the man did it to himself. Ultimately, I don't know that you can be, I mean, ultimately, all evil is based on the devil, but ultimately, can I really blame the devil if God told me what to do and I refused? They're sitting there in the same church. He teaches this message, "How to build a house that cannot be shaken." The one guy is like, "That's the Word of God, I'm doing that. I'm doing that." As soon as I walk out those doors, I'm doing that. Honestly, that's the way I want our broadcast to be. That's the way I want our churches to be, that when your broadcast is over, I want your response to be, "I'm doing that. I'm doing that so that you could live in a house that can't be shaken." So one guy is like, "I'm doing this, I'm doing this." And then the other guy says, "Man, that was an amazing message. Thank you, Pastor Jesus." Unfortunately, we've got to go, we've got a pot roast in the oven, but we'll see you next Sunday. So both guys walk out of the house. Now here's the interesting thing. Both guys walk out to build a life, this house. Now let's say they're next door neighbors, all right? You're sitting there and you are the first guy who is going to do what Jesus told him to do. Notice what he does. It says, "He dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock." So you've got two neighbors and the first neighbor who's going to do what Jesus told him to do, there's not any need in lumber here yet. All there is is the shovels. And so he starts digging, right? I mean, he is pouring sweat. He looks over at his neighbor and he's already got lumber there. He's already got everything. In fact, he starts building and by the end of the first day, the guy who's digging deep, he hadn't even hit rock yet, right? He's sitting there. He hadn't even hit rock yet. And so he's just shoveling dirt, right? And he hadn't even shoveled all the dirt. And the guy, his next door neighbor, already has a wall up, right? He threw some floorboards down on the ground and then he started building walls. And so he's still digging. So at the end of the second day, all the walls are up of the neighbor. And this guy, he is just getting to the rock and now that he's found out where the rock is, he's going to clear out all around the foundation. And that guy, he's ready to put on a roof. And so they do all this, well, then they start bringing in the concrete, the guy who's doing what Jesus said. And then the guy on the next door, he's moved in. He's sitting on the front porch, he's drinking a lemonade. And he's crying out and he's saying, he said, "Brother, it doesn't take all of that. Look at me in my life. Look how well I'm doing. Look, I'm already in my house. You don't even have a wall up yet. You don't even have anything. You spent all this effort and there's nothing to be seen above ground. You're still working in the dirt." And I'm sitting on my porch drinking lemonade. Brother, that's, you're in bondage. You're in bondage. It doesn't take all of that. You don't have to do all of that. It's bondage, brother. It's bondage. And meanwhile, the first guy says, "Well, yeah, but this is what Jesus said you're supposed to do and that's what I'm doing." And so, you know, a couple of days later, and you know, they're starting, they put the foundation. Now they're actually up to the top of the ground and they're doing the rest of the foundation and they're starting a framing. The other guy's got parties going on in his house and they're looking out through the window, laughing at the other guy. That guy, he takes that preacher too literally. He takes Jesus just way too literally. He wants to have a house. I've got a house. I've already got out. I've been in my house for weeks now enjoying life. We're having a party here. We got people in the hot tub out back and he's just now getting walls up. Well, there arrives a day that they now are both in their own homes. And right now on the surface, they both look equal. Both of them have a house. Now the other guy who built his house on sand, he's been in his house, he's been partying down, he has been despising the very thought of having to dig deep. But then a week or so later, first few raindrops start. And now it's harder. Now shh, now there's wind everywhere. There's water everywhere. Shh, shh, shh. And then the other guy's, you know, the guy in the first house, right, that did what Jesus told him to do. He's sitting there just drinking a cup of tea, watching it blow. The other guy's trying to hold his walls up, right? He's sitting there. Oh, oh, there goes the roof. Oh, oh, there goes the roof. Oh, there goes the wall. Oh, there goes another wall. And now he grabs on to the front door and he's using it like a surfboard, right? And he's trying to stay on it. And the other guy, he barely even knows there's a storm. He's sitting there drinking his tea, drinking his tea. So who was in bondage and who was in freedom? Now, a lot of people like to bring up their storms as though their storms are the big deal in their lives. Oh, brother, you just don't know what I'm facing. Oh, brother, you just don't know what I'm facing. And I'm not making light of, well, yeah, I am. I'm making light of that, okay? I'm making fun of it. Now, I can do that because I'm also making fun of myself. There's times I've thought, you just don't know what I'm dealing with. You just don't know the pressure I'm under. You just don't know the things I'm facing. The attacks that I deal with, do you know that pretty much every day somebody contacts the ministry to tell me how much they hate me and that they wish I wasn't on the air and all this other stuff? I mean, you can keep going. I don't care. I don't listen to it. They just tell me it happens. They attack me on Facebook. They attack me online. And you don't think there's days that with everything that's going on, financial pressures, different stuff, you don't think there's days that if I wanted to, I could start staring at the wind and the waves. But here's the thing. I did have to get to the place. I realized the storm is not my problem. My problem is, what am I doing with the word? There's no matter how big the storm gets, no matter how hard it blows. If I have done what Jesus has told me to do, I am prepared for this day. I've been training for this day. That's that is freedom. And a lot of times, listen, it's not the storm that's the issue. It's what you're doing with the word that's the issue. It's not the storm that determines whether the house falls. It's what you did with what Jesus said that determines whether the house falls. That's what that's all about. That's what it's about. You need to realize this and you need to get this down on the inside of yourself because some of you throw pity parties like it's going out of style. You've adapted this victim mentality and you need to stop it. If you're a victim, it's only because when Jesus was teaching, you weren't listening. Listen, I've had a lot of things happen to me, but I'm not a victim to anyone. I will come out of every situation that I enter because every day, more and more, I look to the Lord and it's it is about Jesus and what He's doing. In this story, Jesus did not determine the outcome. The men who heard what He said did. In this story, the storm did not determine the outcome. What these men did with what He said, determined the outcome. Jesus didn't pick the winners and the losers. The storm didn't pick the winners and the losers. Storm tried to destroy them both. He just didn't have what it, the storm just didn't have what it took with the one who did what Jesus said. And again, which one was truly in bondage? Which one truly walked in freedom? We'll talk a little bit more about that tomorrow, but I want you to see something here. He asked the question at the beginning, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord?" This is the reason that Jesus wants you, wants to be Lord of your life, so that He can talk to you, that He can teach you, so that you don't have to keep rebuilding your life. That you don't have to keep rebuilding your houses. You don't have to fight the same battles over and over again. That's what Jesus wants for you. He doesn't want to control you. He doesn't want to rule over you. He doesn't want to dominate you. What He wants is for you to live a life and have a life that cannot be shaken by any storm. That is His love towards you. That is the reason He's saying, "Don't be a believer, be a disciple. Come back. I want to pray with you." Are you walking in true freedom? Learn to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and walk in freedom by knowing the truth that sets you free in this powerful teaching series from Pastor Kurt Owen. We're offering this series on USB as our free gift to you or yours today on our website, Kurt Owen.com. Have you heard about our next level campaign? We've been growing at two to five percent a month and we're outgrowing our facilities. We need three new buildings, one for a call center, one for to be able to, you know, we give away a lot of free product. We need a center to be able to mail that out and then we need one for administration. Plus, we need about $250,000 to do all of that plus some other things. Go to Kurt Owen.com and become a next level partner today. Can you make a decision today to become a disciple? Can you make a decision today to sit and hear Jesus' teachings and then once you hear Him teach, you will go and do what He said. When you do that, will you do that? Let me pray with you. Father in the name of Jesus, today both of us make a decision to be a disciple. Lord, we thank You. We'll do whatever digging is necessary, not to earn Your love or earn Your blessing, but because it's part of You teaching and training us. And Lord, we'll see that we can live in a house that cannot be shaken. In Jesus' name, amen. I'm Kurt Owen. This is Fight to End. See you tomorrow. Jesus' risen victory is assured. [MUSIC]