2022 Grand Strand Men's Conference

This is a link to the First Secession, same as Second Secession, except with this one I tried to follow a script:  https://youtu.be/9GUbwB3Kf5U

OUTLINE OF MY TEACHING AT 2022 MEN'S CONFERENCE

If you live long enough, you will experience the loss of someone you love and you will see how much or how little their life made a difference in others. Last year, I lost the presence of my father-in-law to cancer.  He was one of those rare people who knew the secret sauce to a life well lived. After reading over 50 letters from people stating how much Ernest impacted their life, I saw a pattern, a map that I am going to share with you today that will change your life, your legacy, your whole soul, and equip you to live a life well lived, a legacy you can be proud of. If God is for you, and He puts those desires in you, then let's overcome what is holding you back. Let's get what you came here for. 

If you want to live a life well lived it begins and ends with this:

•     Who you love
•     What you love and
•     The way you love
•     Greatly defines who you are and
•     the quality of your life and legacy.

I learned this from a man on a mission, my mentor, my friend, my father-in-law Ernie Basinger. Almost 30 years ago, I met Ernest for the first time, and the first thing he said to me after shaking my hand and saying, "Nice to meet you." He asked me: "Why did God create you?"

And I came this close to saying, "To marry your daughter" but the time had not come yet, so I told him I was created to love God because God loves me and has called me to love others and to live with Him forever. His reaction was like hearing " Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful…I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness" (Matthew 25:21, NIV). It was Ernest's heart mission to make sure everyone knew God's purpose in making them. Ernie was Earnest with that message. Most who knew Ernest had had a similar experience, just last year, he was still asking that question to people.

Almost all of his life, Ernest led Bible studies. He never considered himself a master of the Bible, but a hungry learner leader walking with other hungry learners which is the definition of disciple.  Jesus said, "Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah" (Matthew 23:10, NIV). Ernest knew the importance of hungry learners walking together with other hungry learners.  I am pleased to say, it has been over 7 months and his group is bigger and stronger.

Ernest said to me, Dustin all I have to do is just set the table with God's word and God will bring the meat and life to the message through these hunger men of God. 

Ernest's tag line on every email he sent was "God loves you and so do I!" and he meant it. Before Ernest died, he wanted to make sure I would provide for free his Bible lessons for you to use and run with.

The last Thanksgiving Ernest had with us, he asked us as a family at the dinner table, "Do you know why God made you?" He even wrote the answer out, he wanted it deep in our hearts. I even took a picture of it. Ernest did not know at that time cancer was growing inside of him, getting ready to take his life in 10 months. All he knew was that he wanted us all to know why God made us.  Ernest knew the secret sauce to a life well lived begins and ends on who you love.

Who you love determines your entire life, your eternal life!  

Jesus said it best in Matthew 22:36-40 when he answer the question

… which is the greatest commandment in the Law which is the divine driving force and influence that impels one into action is…

“‘Love, take pleasure in, long for, prefer the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love those who are close to you as yourself.’ 

The scripture says "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." (1 John 4:11, NIV). Remember when you "Draw near to God and God will draw near to you" (James 4:8, NKJV). This is who God is, it is His nature, to give back to you overflowing whatever you give to him.  Jesus said, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure… and running over" (Luke 6:38, NIV). By the "The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” (Luke 6:38, NLT). This is one of the most quoted money scriptures that has nothing to do with money but everything to do about relationships and forgiveness, about what you give to the relationship.

When you give love to God, God gives even more love back to you.

So, when you love God with all of your heart

God's love fills all of your heart, your feelings, and thoughts with His love.

When you love God with all your soul, breath, and spirit then God's breath and spirit of love fills all your soul.

When you love God with all of your mind, God fills all of your mind, understanding, intellect, insight, critical thinking, imagination, deepest thoughts with His Love.

You send love up to God and God sends overflowing love into you then out of you to others. That is why Jesus said the second command was just like the first. This L shaped flow is what I call God's worth-ship model.

If you are for God and walking with God and send love up to God, then every thought you hear about yourself that comes from God will be in tone of voice usually marked by these three emotions: Great Joy, Gratitude, Gentleness. Philippians 4:4-7 "Rejoice in the Lord always…Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:3-7). Another example: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thes 5;16-18, ESV). Great Joy, Gratitude, Gentleness are emotions you normally feel will you are in alignment with God's will, regardless how bad the situation looks. You can be joyful when you "know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose… Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Romans 8:38, NIV & 12:12, ESV). When you constantly in prayer you can give thanks and be gentle knowing God is leading you through the situation.

When you are against God and rebel then you naturally repel His presence making it harder to recognize which thoughts are from God. The closer you are to God, the easier it is to hear.

When you loathe yourself, despise yourself, think of yourself as unworthy, inferior, unlovable, then that is what naturally flows out of you. Hurting people, hurt people. Loving people, love people.

How do we love God?

Jesus said, "…true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks" (John 4:23, NIV).

What is worship?

It is not Joy and praise.  Joy and praise is what flows out of you when you know that you know you are in the center of God's will regardless of life's hard circumstances. It is because you are doing what you were designed to do and be.

The definition of Hebrew and Greek word translated in English as "worship" means bow down, it is a transfer of power and authority. It means you surrender your everything to rise up and walk in the power and authority and name of another. It is trading everything you have to gain everything God has for you. Worship means doing or saying whatever God is asking you to do or say in that moment. True worship requires the Spirit to speak into you and Truth to confirm what you are hearing or seeing inside of you is from God. 

The word  Christian means you are in Christ, people no longer see you, they see Christ.  They see someone who walks in the power and authority of the one who sent them. Why would anyone do that? If there was a way that you could hear God's voice guiding you in every major decision, why wouldn't you…

You have little, God has everything, knows everything!

Your plans may fail, His plans will prosper and prevail.

The Lord declares, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you… I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 1:5 and 29:11, NIV). Do you want plans that prosper and give you hope, a future that you were purposely made for, or do you want your plans?

Scripture says "God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20, NIV).

So I want you to imagine the beach and hear the crashing waves and feel the warmth of the sun and the joy. That area where you are able to see and feel this visions and hear the sounds inside your mind, heart, and soul is the same place God still communicates today.

THOUGHT FILTERS

All of your thoughts and visions come from two places and two places only. They are either from God or not from God. Knowing the difference makes all the difference.  Ernest knew that studying God's word was one of the best ways to recognize which thoughts were from God. I am going to share some Scriptural thought filters you can use to help you know the difference.

With so many messages to sort through, many times we don’t give a thought to the thoughts we allow inside us. Yet Proverbs 4:23 NLT says “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

Those words translated as "Guard and Heart" in Hebrew also mean to take captive, pay attention to, your heart, soul, hunger, emotions, passions, conscience, imagination, thoughts, mind, thinking, memory, reflection, knowledge, understanding, character, will, inclination, resolution, determination, and courage.

The thoughts you allow to flow through you become you. They play a vital role in determining the course and quality of your life. Thoughts produce emotions and emotions produce the energy to get things in motion taking you either the right direction or the wrong direction. It all depends on the source of the thought.

HEART DESIRES

Jesus said, "Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be" (Matthew 6:21, NLT).

What you love is your heart's desires, those activities you love to do and those shared things and interests that bring people together. The pursuit of your heart's desires puts you in relationship with those who share the same heart's desires.  God uses your heart's desires to lead to the treasures, the relationships you store up in heaven through the Gospel. They act as a treasure map that unfolds as you follow God to the treasure He has prepared for you. When you are long and gone, people will remember the things you loved to do with them.

Your God-given heart's desires will either destroy you or complete you.  It all depends on who you follow, God or your desires. 

The scripture says "Delight yourself in the Lord {Be pliable, flexible, live in joy} and God will give you {meaning places inside you} the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4, ESV).

IMAGE OF GOD – The Way You Love

Jesus said, “I can do nothing on my own accord, but only what I see the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, I do likewise” (John 5:19, ESV). “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…{According to Jesus this is what it means to be the reflection, the image of God. It means}. The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work…Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing…because... {God} will give you…the Spirit of truth…the Holy Spirit…{to} teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”(John 14:9-12, 16,17, 20, 26, NIV). In essence, Jesus' power to raised the dead, healed the sick, cast out demons, set the captives free, came from mirroring moment by moment what he saw and hear the Father do or say. It is not based on believing and trusting enough; it is all about being in sync and in relationship with what God is saying or doing in that moment.

This was the way Jesus loved, this is the way we are to love. Genesis 1:26 said this what we were made for, it is how we rule, by mirroring God.

“If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11, NIV).

YOU HAVE TO HAVE FAITH TO BE THE IMAGE MIRROR OF GOD

Faith is hearing and believing God's words, thoughts, visions.

"faith comes from hearing…Christ" (Romans 10:17, ESV).

Christ said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." (John 10:27, ESV).

Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt…you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.’ ” (Matthew 21:21-22, ESV). Faith is not something you generate by your own belief and will it comes from God speaking into you what to ask for and pray for…

"Faith…is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV).

PRAYER MAP

Prayer opens the door for God to speak into you. This was one of Ernest's secrets to living a life well lived. Prayer is defined as interact with the Lord by switching your wishes (ideas) for God's wishes and will as He imparts faith ("divine persuasion") within you.

Prayer is speaking out that what God is personally speaking into you, your thoughts, your mental visions. It is a living out those mental pictures God is showing you. Prayer is not telling God what to do, it is receive from God what to do or say. Prayer is not telling God what you need, it is about God pouring into you what you need.

The Lord's prayer is the most famous Prayer Map.  So that you will hear it with fresh ears I will change these words (babbling, hallow, name, kingdom, prayer, will) with the definition of each word in its original Greek language

⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on repeating the same prayers and words over and over like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,

I will make sacred, holy, special

your name, reputation, character,

¹⁰ your kingdom, your royal power, authority, and rule

come,

your will, desire, wishes be done,

    on earth as it is in heaven.

¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.

¹² And forgive us God of our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

¹³ And lead us not into temptation,^[a]

    but deliver us from the evil one.^[b]’

¹⁴ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

After I finished studying the Lord's prayer I started to fix dinner when I heard in my thoughts, Dustin look and you will see Ernest's technique Of tell them where you are going to take them as a summary outline then explain what you just told them.  Sure enough the Lord's prayer was the outline for the rest of Jesus' teaching in Chapter 6 and 7^th of Matthew Jesus expounded on each verse.  All my life I had never seen that before.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF A THOUGHT IS FROM GOD

Use scripture thought filters like

For a thought to be from God it MUST have all three components: it must be God’s Way, Truth, and Life for it is who God is: "I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:5, NKJV). The greatest lies are usually based on truths from our perspective, instead of God's. This filter helps expose the lies within us.

A thought must line up with God's word, character, and love.

Gideon  - no fear and awareness  "God has not given you a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline" (2 Tim. 1: 7).

Another thought filter

God is for you and not against you.  The fullness of God's Favor and Forgiveness is upon me. Based on (Romans 8:31) (John 1:14).

The way you are screen your thoughts about your spouse and she to you:

She is for me and not against me.  The fullness of her Favor and Forgiveness is upon me.

I am for her and not against her.  The fullness of my Favor and Forgiveness is upon her.

She is made from your side the rib, the protector of your heart. She is one of the best detectors of evil inside of you, yet the perversion of that gifting is that she becomes the accuser (Satan’s main role). Believe me when I say the enemy of our soul already doing a great job at that, she does not need to sign up for that role.  You need a cheerleader who also is truthful.  Look at the fate of the accuser: " Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels…the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day” (Revelation 12:7, 10). Notice our enemy is an angel and his warriors are angels. The word angel is the Greek sounding word, but if you translate it by meaning, it is the word "messenger".  They have supernatural ability to communicate. One of the closest examples of the power of a messenger is the COVID virus. DNA messenger that have a protein cover surrounding the message so that your cells will believe the virus is food. Once one of your cells consumes the lie, that lie takes over your own cell and your own cell starts reproducing the virus/the lie. It is the invasion of the body snatchers. Just think all cancer and most diseases, especially autoimmune, is your own body's cells believing a lie. Your hope is that your body will discover it is a lie and work to detect and deflect and destroy the lie, before it continues to take over.

James 4:7, NIV says, "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil {liar, slander, false accuser}, and he will flee from you."

(John 13:2, ESV). “…the devil had already put it into the heart (innermost thoughts, mind, and will) of Judas Iscariot…to betray Jesus"

Insults open the door for the Devil to talk to your heart, thoughts that is why scripture warns: “In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold" (Ephesians 4:26-27, NIV).

There is a way to love and there is a way not to love.

SIN IS NOT THE WAY NOT TO LOVE

In English, the meaning of sin as defined by Oxford Languages is an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. That is the popular meaning. The world's meaning of the word sin, but that is not the Biblical meaning of sin. To say sin is immorality is like saying a blue jay is a bird; Thus, all birds are blue jays.  Sin is refusing to do what God asked you or shown you what to do or not to do and you refuse to do it.

James 4:17, NIV – " If anyone, then, knows {sees} the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them."

Romans 14:23, NIV "…everything that does not come from faith {communication from God} is sin." So everything that does not come from God speaking into you or showing you is sin. 

Sin is an misalignment, it is not being the reflection and image of God.

You were made to be God’s mirror, His image, which requires you to be focused on God with a complete clear connection.  The challenge is as of “now all we can see of God is like a cloudy picture in a mirror. Later we will see God...” (1 Corinthians 13:12). In John 14, Jesus defines being the image of God as only doing and saying in that moment whatever God is showing or saying to you.  This requires complete closeness and ability to recognize God speaking into your thoughts, feelings, and mental pictures. It is God implanting you within the faith, strength, and courage to live it out.   

Sin is defined in the New Testament by a Greek word that is about calibration and alignment with the target, it literally means missing the mark.  https://biblehub.com/greek/266.htm Your target and aim in life is to be the pure reflection of God’s prefect will for you in that moment. This type of living is both adventurous and impossible without God’s favor and forgiveness.  This requires real intimacy, love, trust, listening, and living out the love God pours into you to pour into others.

That is why Jesus said, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’(Matthew 7:22-23 ESV).  The Key words here are "never knew". Meaning they never had a personal experience together with Jesus. They knew of Jesus, but they never knew Jesus. Instead of following God, they followed what they thought God desired.

By the New Testament definition of sin, we are all are sinners. Part of Jesus’ mission and purpose was to restore that broken alignment and to breath the Holy Spirit back into humans just like it was in the beginning. 

There is reason why the word confide is found in the word confidence! You have all the confidence you need with God confides in you His moment by moment will for you. 

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray…be considerate as you live…so that nothing will hinder your prayers” (1 Peter 4:8-7; 3:7).

I want you to use scriptural thought filters to "…not be conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:1-2, NIV).

Here are some of my favorite “Thought Filters” scriptures. Before you speak or act does it pass these scriptural tests: 

Love: 1st Corinthians 13 NIV 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. 

Fruitful: Galatians 5 NIV 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

TEN PRA: There is that passage in the Bible that I call “TEN PRA”. It is an acronym:

"And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is…" (Philippians 4:8 NLT). OR NIV: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

L-lovely

T-trustworthy

E-excellent

N-noble

P-praiseworthy or pure

R-respectable

A-acceptable.

If the thoughts that are going in your head do not line up with those words, then those are probably not from God and they need to be held captive and confessed up to God and not necessarily to the individual that you are feeling anti-praiseworthy, anti-noble feelings toward. So, it is important to feel real, but it is important to know who to feel real with at the appropriate time and way.

In the first chapter in Genesis is God's First Commission is a physical mission. God's Great Commission is a spiritual mission which is found last Chapter in the Gospel of Matthew. These two commissions are almost the same mission. Except the Great Commission is about planting the seeds of God’s words and Spirit into others.

The First Commission       The Great Commission

Genesis 1:28-30, 2:17         Matthew 28:16-20

"God Blessed"                    "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me"

“Be fruitful”                          “Therefore go”

“Multiply”                            “Make disciples”

“Fill the earth”                     “Of all nations”

“Reign”                              “Baptizing them (into their new identity) in the name

(which means in the power, authority, and character)

of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”

Eat "Food"                         "Teaching them…to obey everything {Jesus} commanded”

"Must not eat from…"         Unlike Adam’s situation, Jesus ends the great commission with a promise to be “with you always”.

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 218, NIV). There is a clinically proven God given blessings that comes when you and your God-given helper come together to live out these commandments/blessings together:

Be Fruitful (Together frequently produce abundant seed/sperm /ejaculation).

Multiply (Produce babies).  

Fill the Earth (Travel, spread out, and explore).

Eat a plant-based diet.

Rule – God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule” (Genesis 1:26, NIV).

There is so much more I want to cover with you.  We will do it in a small group setting using Zoom and I will post videos for you. Go to dustinlaporte.com to learn more.

Together we are on a mission.  God has given us Spiritual Maps, Scriptural Thought Filters, His Word, and most importantly His life, His Holy SPirit within us.  What more could we ask for? 

God’s Got it! I hope you got what you came here for.  Tell others to come join in the next succession. 

And remember it is…

•     Who you love
•     What you love and
•     The way you love
•     Greatly defines who you are and
•     the quality of your life and legacy.