Performance Orientation

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Performance Orientation

• We dont perform to be loved.
• We perform because we are loved.

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Definition

• Performance Orientation
• Seeking to receive and give acceptance, value,
  worth, affirmation primarily based on what we do,
  or how we perform, rather than on who we are and
  who we were created to become. Our creator and
  redeemer is the only one who is perfectly
  qualified to tell us our worth.
• Not a comment on the importance of living up to
  Gods standard for us God loves us just the way
  we are, but he loves us too much to leave us the
  way we are! John Arnott
• Does not negate the importance of whatever your
  hands find to do, do it with all your heart as
  onto the Lord. the value of excellence over
  perfectionism.
• Judgement seat of Christ rewards

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What weve been taught

• Doing a good job reward / love
• Doing a bad job rejection / disapproval
• From our earliest days
• By our parents, teachers, coaches, bosses,
  culture
• The entire human race
• All Religions of the World

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The Law

• The Law good works
• 3 purposes for the Moral Law
• Reflect nature of God
• Example for us to follow, and
• Serve as a school teacher to lead us to Christ
• Even Jesus!
• Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the
  Pharisees you dont make it to heaven
• Internalising the law from actions to the heart
• Hate Murder Lust Adultery

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Did Jesus perform to be loved?

• At his Baptism Mark 19-11
• In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee
  and was baptized by John in the
  Jordan. Immediately coming up out of the water,
  He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a
  dove descending upon Him and a voice came out of
  the heavens You are My beloved Son, in You I am
  well-pleased.
• Jesus went alone to pray frequently
• He was only in ministry for 3 years!
• He was the perfect example of what it meant to be
  loved by the Father as a human

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What the Lord told Carol

• I have many servants but few lovers
• He is looking for lovers
• The Great Commandment before the Great Commission
  (Mt 2237)
• Jesus is looking for a beautiful and passionate
  Bride, full of love for him
• Mary versus Martha Luke 10 38-42
• We produce after our own kind universal law

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What motivates our performance?

• It is usually out of fear of man
• Of rejection
• Of not belonging
• Of not measuring up
• We feel the need to be loved, for affirmation
  without feeling, super- knowing, having received,
  living in the unconditional love (agape) and
  affection (phileo) of Abba
• Like poor people who can be materialistic, PO is
  an issue for those who are not successful

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The Love of Christ

• Eph 314-19 - For this reason I bow my knees
  before the Father, from whom every family in
  heaven and on earth is named, that according to
  the riches of his glory he may grant you to be
  strengthened with power through his Spirit in
  your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in
  your hearts through faith that you, being
  rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to
  comprehend with all the saints what is the
  breadth and length and height and depth, and to
  know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
  that you may be filled with all the fullness of
  God.
• Paul was praying strength gt Christ in heart -gt
  rooted in love -gt know the Love of Christ -gt
  filled with fullness of God

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The Love of Christ

• Rom 835-39 - Who shall separate us from the love
  of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
  persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger,
  or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are
  being killed all the day long we are regarded as
  sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things
  we are more than conquerors through him who loved
  us. For I am sure that neither death nor life,
  nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor
  things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth,
  nor anything else in all creation, will be able
  to separate us from the love of God in Christ
  Jesus our Lord.
• We are more than conquerors because of a PERSON
  WHO LOVES US

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The Love of the Father

• I John 31 ff See what kind of love the Father
  has given to us, that we should be called
  children of God and so we are. The reason why
  the world does not know us is that it did not
  know him. Beloved, we are Gods children now, and
  what we will be has not yet appeared but we know
  that when he appears we shall be like him,
  because we shall see him as he is. And everyone
  who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is
  pure.
• Our motive for purity is that we are Gods
  children because of his love for us

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Its an issue of motivation

• Not about non-performance versus performance
  excellence
• Its about attitude or motivation not behaviour
  we can be doing and saying all the right things
  but with the wrong heart motivation
• Man looks on the outward appearance, God looks at
  the motives of the heart

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Attributes of POd people

• P People pleasing tend toward perfectionism
• E Efforts based on drive to succeed at any cost -
  DRIVEN
• R Receives criticism poorly craves compliments
  /affirmation
• F Feels lonely and/or insecure in relationships
• O Overly defensive
• R Responsible for everything always overly busy
  STRIVING
• M Ministering but never able to ministry
• A Angry quite easily and tired all the time
• N Needs to blame others victim mentality
• C Controlling of people and situations
• E Emotionally suppressed difficult to get to
  know

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Prayer Ministry

• I have great worth apart from my performance,
  because Christ gave his life for me, and
  therefore imparted great value to me. I am deeply
  loved, fully pleasing, totally forgiven, accepted
  and complete in Christ.
• Father, I choose now to forgive_________ for what
  was taught to my heart in terms of having to
  produce, and that if I was unable to meet that
  expectation I was considered to be a failure.
• I speak out the truth. I am not a failure. I am
  loved. I will walk in that belief.
• I forgive you _________ for what you taught my
  heart to believe. Father, please surround
  _________ with your mercy and grace and teach
  them of your love as well.