The Secret of the Open Hand

The Secret of the Open Hand

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Josh Khachadourian: Do you know about the secret of the open hand? Guys, in today's episode, I'm gonna share something with you that I've been thinking about. I've been pondering this, contemplating it, and it's something important. It's something that needs to be addressed. So stay tuned because this episode is gonna give you something to think about, and I am going to challenge you.

Josh Khachadourian: So stick around if you want to be challenged, if you wanna raise the standard in your life and understand the secret of the open hand, let's get. This is raising the standard leadership mindset and development for the ambitious Christian man. Identify, unlock and access spiritual secrets and strategies grounded in biblical truth so you can run your race and maximize your impact and influence.

Josh Khachadourian: It's time to lead yourself, your family, and your world. Let's get after it. Hey guys. Welcome back to another episode of Raising the Standard. I've been thinking about something that I wanna share with you. So guys, this is gonna be a quick hit, but I want to drop a challenge to you and I wanna walk you through something that I'm seeing.

Josh Khachadourian: It's something I'm observing and it's something that we are all experiencing right now, and that is the present day materialistic culture that we live in. If you think about it, we live in a very unique. Time in history. We've never had this much technology. We've never had this many resources, and I'm specifically speaking to my listeners in America.

Josh Khachadourian: But of course in many countries of the world, we also have this abundance of resources, um, shopping at our fingertips, marketing messages in the algorithm where we have become very materialistic, very superficial as a society. And I don't want you to hear what. Saying, I'm not coming against prosperity wealth.

Josh Khachadourian: I'm not coming against owning nice things, or the idea of owning quality goods, leaving a legacy accumulating wealth. This is a show for business guys. So if you're listening to the show, you're in the right place. If you're focused on building, if you're focused on storing, managing, and multiplying what comes into your hand, but we are.

Josh Khachadourian: In this culture of excess, so much excess, so much things that we can get that catch our eye, that catch our attention, and call out to us to get it faster. To have it now, to always upgrade, to always look for the next thing, and it's easy to get caught in this cycle and this culture. Is the culture around me starting to affect and impact the way I see things, the way I see the world, my expectations.

Josh Khachadourian: So make no mistake about it, guys. If you have a mobile phone, if you are on social media, if you use the search engines, you are in the matrix. You are in this algorithm where you are being bombarded. And I would even go one step further and I would say we're being programmed now. It's up to us whether we subscribe to that or not.

Josh Khachadourian: However, there is a programming that's going on right now in this current day culture of how to think, what to buy, what to wear, how to see yourself, how to see your need, and always looking for a new expectation of something I should be pursuing. Some materialistic good that I should be running after. So here's the thing, guys.

Josh Khachadourian: Your focus has been hijacked and you've been told you need the next thing. You need the next truck, you need the next house. You need the next, whatever that is for you that you're looking at, that fills your bucket. Article of clothing, piece of technology. Whatever that might be. This is all coming across and bombarding us day in, day out, and also our families and our children, and this is getting harder and harder to cope with.

Josh Khachadourian: Now let's just talk about where we are in history, because history always repeats itself and we see this throughout the nation of Israel. We see this throughout the Bible. They had a false God that they worshiped in Bible times called bail. Bail symbolizes idolatry, symbolizes materialism, and we have that same spirit present right now.

Josh Khachadourian: Bail is running rampant. This thing within our culture where we make idols now, don't hear me wrong, it's not idols like you're worshiping. You are fashioning images in idols and really an idol is anything we put in the place. Of where we should be seeking the Lord. Something that takes the priority in our life.

Josh Khachadourian: Something that misplaces God, his truth, his word, who he is to us, our relationship with Him. And this happens subtly. You start finding yourself. Looking at work, you know, maybe it's work for you becomes an idol. I know what that's like. I've chased work. I've chased advancement. I've chased promotion in my life, so I know how work can easily become an idol for men.

Josh Khachadourian: Also. It could be a hobby, it could be recreation, it could be sports. We're in the middle of March Madness right now. How attached are you to the things of the world? That's my question for you today. As you think about and accept this challenge that I'm gonna drop, So if we go back to scripture, you will see at the inception of the church when the church was born in the Book of Acts, and we enter this church age, we see community.

Josh Khachadourian: We see that they lived with all things in common. We see that they put the need of others above the need of themself, and they weren't entrenched and didn't have the trappings of the materialistic society that we. Now, I'm not saying we have to go back to a community-based model where we have all things in common.

Josh Khachadourian: That's not what I'm saying. We do live in different times. We live in a different culture, and we've taken Christianity and this concept and what the Lord has given us as a model of community, a model of an environment. that we are to live and walk out our life and together, and we've made it highly individual.

Josh Khachadourian: Okay? So we live in this culture of materialism and guys, it calls out to all of us. There's shiny objects everywhere competing for our attention. And there's things that we wanna buy. There's things we wanna own. There's a pride of ownership, and it's something that can take the place of the Lord. This is a matter of priorities.

Josh Khachadourian: What I'm sharing with you today, and I wanted to. Secret with you. I call it the secret of the open hand. What is the secret of the open hand? And it's this, it's Ken I Steward, which is really, if you look at the definition of stewardship, it's looking after something that's not yours. It's actually owned.

Josh Khachadourian: By the Lord. That's what we see in scripture, that he owns it, but he allows it to come into our possession so we can steward it. That means we do not truly have ownership of everything within our hand, because it's all the lords, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. So if he allows you and he increases your position in life, He expects you to deal as a proper steward with what he places through your hand.

Josh Khachadourian: And I'm gonna say it this way, what he allows to flow through your hand. And that is the secret of the open hand. If you are holding something so tight where you cannot let go of it, where you cannot realize that he's blessed you to be a blessing than your hands. Too tight. Is your hand too tight right now?

Josh Khachadourian: And as we talk about where we are in culture, I want to share with you a church that we read about in the Book of Revelation that is very similar, very similar to what we see in today's current culture. That church is called laodicea. You can read about them in Revelation chapter three. Here's the crazy thing.

Josh Khachadourian: I want you to read this and hear what I'm about to tell you and understand that the Lord is not talking to non-Christians. This is a church. This is a body of believers. These are people that profess his name. Okay guys, so let me just take you to laodicea for a moment. Let's look at what's happening there.

Josh Khachadourian: And there's not gonna be a fully exhaustive study. I just wanna make a point here and let it land, is that this church was rich. This church had wealth. These people lived in a culture of business. They had everything they needed. How do I know? Because they say so. And Jesus tells them when he addresses the Church of Lek and Revelation chapter three, he says, because you say I am rich, I have become wealthy, and I have need of nothing.

Josh Khachadourian: Let's just pause there for a moment because that's the way we live, guys. I live that way. I don't have need of. , all my needs are met. If you're listening to this and you're in a first world country, that's you too. You really don't have need of anything, right? You have shelter, you have food, you have everything you need.

Josh Khachadourian: Obviously this church has accumulated a lot of wealth. That's the status of where we are in the country and the culture at the moment, huge emphasis on wealth and accumulating it. And many of us have it, or we have the measure. We have more than enough for really what we. But the crazy thing is, is that this church and this people, and the question is for you and I have, we put our faith, have we looked at our material circumstances?

Josh Khachadourian: Have we looked around what we have, our stewardship, what's been blessed, how we've been blessed, what's been placed in our hands? And say like, listen, I don't really need anything. I feel great. I have a comfortable life. Things are. And the question before us is, how does Jesus see us? And let's take a look at what he says to this church.

Josh Khachadourian: Jesus says, and you do not know. That you are wretched, you are miserable. You're poor, blind, and naked guys, these are serious accusations. This church at laodicea only receives negative words from Jesus. There's no praise to be given to Layo Desia like some of the other churches. This one's all negative, but on the outside they look great.

Josh Khachadourian: On the outside, they look prosperous. On the outside, they have abundance, and on the outside they're lacking for nothing. In the physical realm, they're lacking for nothing in the natural realm. But Jesus doesn't come to judge the natural circumstances. He comes to judge the spiritual condition that is the primary and the first point of how he addresses every church in Revelation and how he will address and.

Josh Khachadourian: You and I. So guys, my question is, is your hand open? There's nothing wrong with accumulating wealth, with building your business, with storing your business, with leaving a legacy to your children's children. That is a biblical concept. I'm not coming down on wealth, abundance, or prosperity. What I am saying is, where's your heart?

Josh Khachadourian: So guys, never use what I'm saying here as a weapon to judge or evaluate someone else because they have something nice. And if you try and go down that road where you accuse people of, oh, you can't have that, or you're not supposed to own that, you've missed the whole point. This is about you Look in the mirror first.

Josh Khachadourian: What's in your heart? Do not judge your brother. There's no rule in scripture of how much you can have or what it looks like or a certain number. And once you cross that number or that dollar sign, it now becomes sin. It's non-existent guys. Some people are really good stores. The Lord blesses them to be a blessing, and other people have the same amount and they're stingy and they keep their hand closed.

Josh Khachadourian: And the purpose I'm dropping this info on you today is because I want you to keep your hand open. I believe that's the Lord's call and purpose for giving us prosperity, blessings, and wealth. Following the show, you have a mandate on your life to go grow, manage, and multiply. That is the DNA N blueprint, but when you get it, what do you do with it?

Josh Khachadourian: When you're blessed, you better be a blessing because if not, we can end up like the church in Lao Decia. We can have everything but how sad it will be. When Jesus says, I know your spiritual condition, and this is what it really is, but it looked good on the outside, but on the inside it's 180 degrees opposed to the will and the purpose of God for their life.

Josh Khachadourian: So guys, I'm gonna wrap up with this. There is a story in scripture. It's written for all of us for ages, right? This is in the word of God, it's memorial. There, and it's really incredible if you think about it. Okay guys, so the story of the rich young ruler, I want to make one point from this story. There's so many aspects we could break down.

Josh Khachadourian: He approaches Jesus. He's following him. He calls him good teacher. Jesus has an exchange with him on why do you call me good, but I want to get to my main point for today. He asks the Lord, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus looked at him with compassion and with love, and Jesus says this to the rich young.

Josh Khachadourian: One thing you lack, go and sell everything you possess and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. And then check this out. Jesus then says, come follow me. Guys, this is incredible. This guy is getting an invitation to be a follower of Jesus, to follow him, a personal invite. Come and follow me.

Josh Khachadourian: Come and be with me. Come and follow me. Walk on the same road as me. So let's look at why Jesus answers him this way. Is Jesus saying wealth is wrong? Absolutely not. Does he say this to everyone else? He encounters? Absolutely not. Jesus being the son of man, the son of God, at the same time, he knows what's in his heart.

Josh Khachadourian: He's perceptive, he's prophetic. He's functioning as a prophet. He's saying, I can see what's in your heart. You are gripped by materialism. You're gripped by your possessions. You define your identity from your wealth, all the possessions that you have. Status in life. And Jesus is speaking a custom made message that's tailored to the rich young ruler's heart.

Josh Khachadourian: And that's why he says, go and sell everything you have and then come and follow me. And what we see here is that the rich young ruler couldn't do it. His hand is tight. He's holding on to everything he has. His security, his status, his purpose in life. His very identity comes from the things he owns. Guys, it's the secret of the open hand, the secret of the open hand.

Josh Khachadourian: Jesus wants you to have your hands. Open men, can you let resources flow through? Can you let blessings flow through? Can you say no to having security and controlling everything in your life and saying, Lord, I trust you. If you tell me to give it, I'll give it. If you tell me that I'm to sow a seed, I can sow a seed.

Josh Khachadourian: If I'm to bless another person, I can bless another person. Guys, that's the secret of the open. , and here's my last point, guys. The rich young ruler will forever be known as the rich young ruler who basically rejected Jesus' invitation to follow him. But I have a what if question. What if? What if he said yes?

Josh Khachadourian: What if the rich young ruler said, I will follow you. I will do this. I will give everything. You're worth it. I know who you are, and I counted an honor and a privilege to even be welcomed into this lifestyle to be a follower of yours. What if he acted immediately? Do you realize how this story would be so different?

Josh Khachadourian: Perhaps we would get his name. He's forever known as the rich young ruler, but perhaps we would understand who he is, what laid ahead of him with his potential in the call that the Lord may have placed on his life. He could have been a missionary, a first century church planner that literally shake the earth with exploit signs and wonders with teaching the word of God with seeing many come to Christ.

Josh Khachadourian: But he said, And because his hand was closed, he never gets invited in to discover what was on the other side of that call and that invitation that Jesus makes to him. What if, guys, this is a challenging message for me. It's a challenging message for me to bring forward because I don't have it off.

Josh Khachadourian: Figured out, and I'm constantly being tested and I'm constantly being challenged by the Lord on am I holding things too tight? Am I finding my security only in material things? Am I finding my security and my title, my job, my status, my 401k, or whatever else it is that you use to evaluate your own life?

Josh Khachadourian: Guys, can you let it go? I'm not telling you you have to let it go, but if the Lord shows up and he asks you to release something to be a blessing, to steward something the way he wants it to be stored, not thinking in your natural mind, but listening to the spirit of the Lord on how you are to react or act or respond to the need around you.

Josh Khachadourian: Could you do it? That's the secret of the open hand guys. Let's raise the standard. Hey guys, I got a quick announcement to make. If you feel that you're in the gap between where you are right now and where you're supposed to be in life, that place that God has promised you, that promised land that he has for you.

Josh Khachadourian: Then I want to invite you into the Unfair Advantage challenge. It's an 11 day email training content that I've never shared on this platform before, and I'm doing this because I want to equip you and teach you how to access the unfair advantage that God gives all men who are walking with him. But here's the thing.

Josh Khachadourian: Many men never access it. Many men never reach their promised land, and many men never reach their full potential. That's why I'm doing this. So go to access your advantage.com. Sign up for the training, and you will get equipped with the strategy, the mindset, and the tools so you can unlock and access the unfair advantage that God has for you.

Josh Khachadourian: Let's get after it.