Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself Luke 9:51 audio video notes. What you think about most of the time will emerge into your reality. Successful people think about where they want to go in life – their goal and goals. Jesus had goals. Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem to be received up. It was his ultimate goal. Jerusalem was going to happen. Unsuccessful, unhappy people think and talk about their complaints, worries, their problems, who’s to blame, etc. They actually talk about what they don’t want, so they continue getting exactly that.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE CHAPTER 9
By Delbert Young
Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself Luke 9:51 audio video notes
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Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself Luke 9:51
Scriptures: Luke 9:51, Mark 12:30, Genesis 2:7, 3 John 1:2, Proverbs 4:23, Mark 11:23-24
Luke 9:51 As the time approached FOR HIM TO BE TAKEN UP TO HEAVEN, Jesus RESOLUTELY SET OUT FOR JERUSALEM.
Jesus set a goal. He didn’t view Jerusalem as the place where he would be betrayed, arrested, mocked, abused, scourged, executed, buried, or even resurrected. Jerusalem was the place for him to be taken up to heaven. It was the place he would complete his life’s goal. So, today and perhaps for a few weeks, I want to talk about setting life’s goals.
All successful people are goal-oriented. The ability to set goals is the master skill of success. Jesus shows us how to accomplish great things in life though faced with the most difficult of situations. No one was more successful than Jesus Christ. Jesus set resolute goals.
“Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”
The word resolutely is sterizo {stay-rid’-zo} – to make stable, place firmly, set fast, fix; to render constant, confirm one’s mind. Jesus set this purpose deep in his mind. He stabilized the goal. He set and fixed the goal firmly. Jesus rendered his mind. In computer science, rendering deals with converting graphics into video. Jesus constantly rendered, or imagined, as he played the video in his mind. A jury will render a verdict after seeing and hearing all the evidence giving them a mental vision of what took place. In cooking, render is to convert, or melt down. In music, render is to play out a musical piece.
Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself
In acting, render is to act out the scene. The point I want us to see is Jesus worked his goal deep into his own mind by rendering – acting out, melting down, arranging, graphically seeing, and assimilating the evidence. However, what he focused on was not the betrayal, arrest, trial, scourging, crucifixion, or his resurrection. All those were processes to get to his goal. The goal was to be taken up to heaven.
Jesus fixed and set this goal deep in his mind. Goal setting deals with getting deeply into the mind past the conscious mind. Properly setting goals helps unlock our subconscious positive mind releasing energy to obtain success. Until goals get into the subconscious areas of the mind, they are only wishes, not goals. Jesus said,
Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your HEART and with all your SOUL and with all your MIND and with all your STRENGTH.
I want to talk about this more in a future lesson, but we must realize there are different “layers” of our conscious being, or consciousness. Jesus gave us the process, as it were, of loving God. Strength is the physical consciousness – your body. It’s the house for the heart, soul, and mind. It provides the physical strength necessary for success in anything, including worship. The mind is where we consciously think and reason. The mind filters out or feeds in true or false information to the soul according to how it’s trained to reason.
To the mind things such as loving and worshiping God do not reason (Rom 8:7 – enmity). The mind doubts God and filters the things of God out, i.e. praise, tithing, praying, etc. To love God, we must move past the mind to the soul. The soul is the subconscious mind linking the heart’s consciousness with the mind’s consciousness. The soul (subconscious mind) is where life happens. You are a living soul.
Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils THE BREATH OF LIFE; and man became a LIVING SOUL.
When we get into the soul – subconscious mind, we get into where life is created and happens. In the soul dimension, even dust becomes alive. The soul – the subconscious mind – controls and sustains our life. It handles all the involuntary actions happening at this moment in your body, i.e. keeps heart beating, lungs breathing, body temperature, digestion, excretion, eyes blinking, healing, etc., and is capable of doing a trillion things at one time and does this easily and involuntarily. It’s the soul that brings us health.
3 John 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest PROSPER AND BE IN HEALTH, even as thy SOUL PROSPERETH.
Health and prosperity are in the soul – subconscious – area. Once loving and worshiping God gets into our soul, God becomes alive to us. God is a part of us. Loving God is involuntary. You just do it. He’s living inside you. The soul – the subconscious mind – is the door to the heart, the deepest level of our conscious being. It’s from here that issues of life come either good or bad.
Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy HEART WITH ALL DILIGENCE; for OUT OF IT ARE THE ISSUES OF LIFE.
From your heart comes your life. In the soul it becomes alive. In the heart it becomes reality. Once in the heart it will happen. Jesus said we defile ourselves by negative issues allowed into the heart (Mat 15:18). Obviously, we can have great success by getting good issues into the heart. When we love God with our heart God comes out. He is a mission in life. We constantly think about God. Our desire is to be godly. God’s in our words, our actions, and our walk.
Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself
To make any goal a successful life reality, it must get past the physical strength, past and through the mind, into the subconscious soul, and finally deposited into the heart. It’s there it will happen. Jesus said,
Mark 11:23-24 “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and DOES NOT DOUBT IN HIS HEART but believes that what he says WILL HAPPEN, IT WILL BE DONE FOR HIM. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED IT, AND IT WILL BE YOURS.
A purpose of prayer is to get what we desire past physical strength, past the mind, into the soul – the subconscious mind – and deposited into the heart. Once in the heart, it will happen. I want to talk more about this in a future lesson, but for now, realize it’s when you get a goal into your heart, IT WILL BE YOURS. Jesus said so. This is either true or not true.
Without goals, you drift aimlessly through life. With goals, you are more like an arrow flying at your target. Goals must be what we think about most as we become in life what we think about most.
Proverbs 23:7 For AS HE THINKETH IN HIS HEART, so is he…
What do you think about? I want us to note it’s not “think in his mind.” It’s “think in his heart.” Your heart consciousness thinks. It’s thinking deeper than a wish, and it’s pushing beyond the conscious mind and into the deeper subconscious soul allowing the soul to place the thought into the heart. That conscious level is where your life is reality. What you think about most of the time – heart thinking – will emerge into your reality. Successful people think about where they want to go in life. Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem to be received up and he did. Jerusalem was going to happen.
Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself
Unsuccessful, unhappy people think and talk about their complaints, worries, their problems, who’s to blame, etc. They actually talk about what they don’t want, so they continue getting exactly that. I need to ask you now, which do you think and talk about? Do you complain, worry, and blame? Or, do you think and talk about where you want to go in life?
I want to talk about: (1) if goals are so important, why aren’t we told, and taught more about them and why don’t we make them? (2) How do I begin setting resolute goals?
(I) WHY DO PEOPLE NOT SET GOALS? There are at least four reasons.
People do not realize the importance of goals. If our parents never set goals, we probably haven’t. If our friends do not set goals, we probably haven’t either. That was my case. My parents were great people, but not “goal-oriented” people. My acquaintances are fun people, but not “goal-oriented” people. I was an adult before I heard the importance of goal setting. I went through high school, two years of college for an Associate’s degree in Accounting, and four years of Biblical study for my Theological Bachelor’s degree, but never took a course or class on the importance of goal setting. So, we’re not taught.
People don’t know how to set goals, or think they already have goals when, in fact, all they have are wishes and dreams. A goal is clear, written, and specific.
Habakkuk 2:2 And the LORD answered me, and said, WRITE THE VISION, and MAKE IT PLAIN upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
(AMP) Habakkuk 2:2 And the Lord answered me and said, WRITE THE VISION AND ENGRAVE IT SO PLAINLY upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and QUICKLY] as he hastens by.
Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself
A goal is specific and easily and quickly understood. There was a study done at Harvard Business School over a ten-year period. Graduates were asked if they had set clear written goals for their future. Only 3% of the graduates set written goals while 13% had goals, but not written and 84% had no specific goals other than getting out of school and enjoying the summer. Ten years later the study of the same class showed the 13% with goals, but not written had, on average, incomes twice those who had no goals. The most surprising was the 3% with written goals, on average, earned ten times the income of all other graduates.
Fear of failure.
We fear we won’t achieve goals, so we never set them. In so doing, we sabotage ourselves. We would rather function at low levels of life than attempt to function at high levels and possibly fail.
Fear of rejection.
People fear if they set a goal and don’t achieve it, others will criticize them. So, don’t tell anyone your goals. What people don’t know can’t hurt you. Instead, let them see your success.
Imagine being in New Your City. You want to find a specific house in that city, but all you have is a vague description of the house. You have no address, no directions, no road map, no GPS, only the description. How long would it take you to find the house? Likely, it would take your whole life if at all. This is the way most people go through life. We are looking for a wish hoping to find success, but all we have is a vague idea of what we’re looking for. We drift wherever the currents take us. This is life with no goals. We wishfully turn left here and right there.
Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself
We attempt to figure things out as we go. After ten or twenty years of random lefts, rights, and turnarounds, we are still wishing, still broke, still unhappy, still dissatisfied with the marriage, and still aimlessly figuring it out as we go.
So, what about you? What are your goals? Which of the 4 is why you haven’t set goals? Are you drifting through life wishing and hoping? Or, are you an arrow flying toward your designated target? Are you a resolute person with a sterizo mind?
(II) HOW DO I BEGIN SETTING RESOLUTE GOALS?
To begin setting goals, we need to carve out a few minutes of our valuable time for what should be the most priceless process we will ever put ourselves through. Here’s the beginning question: If your life was perfect in every respect, what would it look like in 5 years? Let’s call this “My 5-year Fantasy.” The reason we do a 5-year Fantasy and not a 1-year is studies show we overestimate what we can accomplish in 1 year, but underestimate what we can accomplish in 5 years.
I want you to imagine you possess all the talents and means to accomplish any goal you desire. Imagine you have all the friends and contacts necessary to achieve anything you want. Charles Garfield did a study and wrote a book titled Peak Performance. His study targeted people who achieved average success for many years of life, but then exploded into amazing accomplishments. He found their take-off point was, what he termed, “blue sky” imagining meaning looking into a clear blue sky with no clouds or limits. It’s dreaming big dreams with no limits. You create an image – imagination – in your mind of what life would be like with no limitations.
Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself
(1) Begin your 5-Year Fantasy with your carrier.
If life is perfect 5 years from now, how does it look? What are you doing? Where are you doing it? With whom are you working? What level of responsibility do you have? What skills and abilities do you have, and what level of status do you have in your field?
(2) How about your financial life?
How much do you want to be earning 5 years from today? What lifestyle do you want 5 years from today – home, car, truck, luxuries? How much money do you want in the bank 5 years from now? How much do you want to be saving and giving?
(3) How about your family?
Your children are 5 years older. You’re 5 years older. Your spouse is 5 years older (if you’re blessed to have one.) Your grandchildren are 5 years older. How does your family look? Where do you live? What relationships do you have with the most important people in your life 5 years from now?
(4) How about your body?
If you were a perfect physical specimen, what is your weight? What is your energy level? How much do you exercise? In your fantasy, what is your overall health?
Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself
(5) How about society?
What do you do in the community? What do you do for the world around you making a difference in your life and in the lives of people? To what organizations or church do you contribute? What are you giving back?
Now ask yourself “How?” Will what you’re doing today get you there? Unsuccessful people ask, “How in the world could this possibly happen?” and conclude it’s impossible, so it never does. Successful people only ask, “How?” To successful people, it’s not impossible. It’s only “How?” How do I get my resolute goals past my mind into my soul and deposited as a seed into my heart where it will become my reality – my fantasy life? What’s your next step? We’ll talk about this aspect more next time. JESUS RESOLUTELY SET OUT FOR JERUSALEM. Where are you “resolutely setting out for?”
Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself Luke 9:51
Learning from Jesus – Resolutely Setting Goals for Yourself Luke 9:51
Other Related Sermons:
What Do I Need to Learn: How to Renew My Mind in Christ
Major Definite Resolute Goal sermon
Sermon Series By Delbert Young
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