Sermon

What If I’m An Imposter? // God Chose You (Part 5) // Pastor Charles Metcalf

Transformation Church

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. Welcome to Transformation Church podcast, where we represent God to

  2. the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so

  3. glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe

  4. God will transform your life. Do today's message.

  5. We are in week five, Week number five of a

  6. series called God Chose You. Look at your neighbor and

  7. tell them God chose you.

  8. As rights, God chose you. God Chose You's.

  9. Based off a book and just released a couple of

  10. weeks ago called God Chose Me. And the idea is

  11. for you to know this book was not written in

  12. This message is not about God choosing an individual for

  13. you to look at and be impressed by.

  14. The goal would be is that you would understand that.

  15. Where you are, how you are, no matter what you've

  16. been through, God has chosen you. It is one of

  17. the most centrally important ideas of your life. That you

  18. understand your life. It's not an accident. It is not chance.

  19. You didn't get there because someone hired you. It wasn't

  20. anybody else's responsibility that you are at where you are at.

  21. God has chosen you. Somebody just say real quick, God

  22. chose me. You have to embrace this. This is a

  23. daily confession.

  24. It's a daily something you have to remind yourself of

  25. because situations and life and seasons will try to suggest

  26. that you are not chosen, that you're not special, that

  27. you're not unique, that there's nothing important specifically about your life,

  28. and it's just not true. There's nobody on the planet

  29. Earth that has the fingerprint you do.

  30. There's nobody that has the story you have. There's nobody who.

  31. Has heard and sensed and seeing God in the way

  32. that you've seen him.

  33. There's nobody like you. And as much as the world.

  34. And social media tries to tell you you're not that

  35. special or not that important unless a lot of people

  36. are looking at you, that is not what God says

  37. and what he believes.

  38. About your life. You're special, You're valuable, some of you.

  39. The truth is, it's hard to believe this because you

  40. never heard those words.

  41. Growing up. It was be quiet, it was just get

  42. out the way, it was just moving.

  43. So a lot of our adult life is spent trying

  44. to achieve things so.

  45. That people will choose us. Well, we gotta be honest.

  46. I'll do a good job, I'll do these things, and

  47. then somebody will see me and choose me. The only

  48. problem is that you spend most of your life trying

  49. to press people you don't care about and they don't

  50. care about you, only to get it to realize if

  51. it's not what you really needed. There's a famous actor

  52. that was quoted one time that said, I wish everybody

  53. could get everything they ever wanted, just to realize.

  54. It's not what they actually want.

  55. Some of y'all are like, but let me try it though.

  56. Let me just I feel you, but you may not

  57. have done it right. The truth is, we gotta be

  58. honest about this, So I'm excited. We're gonna jump into

  59. week five. If you got your Bible's turned to Luke

  60. chapter number twenty two, Luke twenty two.

  61. We're gonna look at doctor Luke.

  62. If you didn't know that Luke's a doctor at least

  63. that's what has to say all the time.

  64. So I just be saying it. No, I'm joking. Luke

  65. Chapter twenty two. We're gonna read two verses and then

  66. we'll jump right in Luke chapter number twenty two. This

  67. is what it says. First number thirty.

  68. Three, Peter said, Lord, I'm ready to go to prison

  69. with you.

  70. Come on, y'all, got any friends that you go to

  71. jail for. Come on, some of y'all.

  72. Somebody said, nope, no, I don't. No, I ain't going

  73. to jail for nobody. I'm gonna say that right now,

  74. not nobody. I will tattletale so quick, I'll be like, Yep,

  75. Aaron did it.

  76. It was Aaron. I saw him. His fingerprints are all

  77. over the place. He stole it all. I had nothing

  78. to do with it.

  79. Shout out to my friends bringing Aaron. This is their

  80. shirt for the baby boy Ace. I love you, but

  81. I will snitch on you, though, so just know that.

  82. Peter said, Lord, I'm ready to go to prison with

  83. you and even to die with you. Let's jump forward

  84. and see if he keep that same energy.

  85. Twenty seven verses later, Peter said, man.

  86. I do not know what you were talking about, And

  87. immediately while he was speaking, the rooster crowed.

  88. At that moment, the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

  89. Suddenly, the Lord's words flashed through Peter's mind before the

  90. rooster crows, tomorrow morning, you will deny me three times

  91. that you even know who I am.

  92. And Peter left the courtyard weeping bitterly.

  93. The title of my sermon, if you're taking notes, write

  94. this down.

  95. What if I'm an impostor? What if I'm an impostor?

  96. Lord, we pray for the next few moments that you

  97. would guide us, that you would help us to see

  98. who you are and who we really are. So in Jesus,

  99. then we pray, and everybody said, amen. I don't know

  100. if you've heard this term imposter syndrome. Anybody heard us

  101. raise the hands? You know, Okay, this is a term

  102. that many of us are familiar with, and it's this

  103. idea that I don't necessarily belong here. I feel like

  104. I don't fit. I feel like I'm not supposed.

  105. To be in this room. You've ever been in a

  106. room you felt like you ain't supposed to be in?

  107. Like you just looking around like this happened all the

  108. time with me being friends and working with and all

  109. the different hats of Pastor Michael. Y'all know, Pastor Michael

  110. is one of the most amazing people in the world,

  111. and he'd just be up in rooms that's like, how

  112. in the world are we in here?

  113. I can tell you how many times he's like, come on, Charlie,

  114. we rolling and I'm like, where are we going. He's like,

  115. just come on.

  116. I'm like all right, bet, And we could be going

  117. to Quick Trip, or we could end up.

  118. In the White House on a Tuesday.

  119. I don't even know how people we be in there,

  120. and I'll be looking around sometimes, like there was.

  121. One I'll never forget. We went to.

  122. A record label talking about music and TC worship. It

  123. was a couple years ago, and we're in there and

  124. I felt like it was a scene out of a movie.

  125. Pastor Mike is all these people in this massive conference room.

  126. Pastor Mike's like, give me.

  127. The OX, and they give him the chord and he's

  128. just blaring all the songs that are out now before

  129. they are all out.

  130. And I'm just in there looking.

  131. Around like, yeah, you know, just music stuff, sh whatever.

  132. And so they're all like looking at me like I

  133. don't know what they thought I did. But I just

  134. I had a pair of sunglasses and kept him on

  135. the whole time, just to stay mysterious. They didn't know

  136. what I did.

  137. He's like, that's right, we'll take a million dollars. I

  138. don't know. I'm just saying random things.

  139. But if prossor syndrome tells you, I'm not supposed to

  140. be here. I shouldn't be doing this, I shouldn't be

  141. at this place. And today I want to take a

  142. moment to talk about what I believe is stopping a

  143. significant amount of believers from being who God has called

  144. you to be, from believing that you're chosen, from believing

  145. that your life has value, from believing that you are

  146. the one.

  147. It is very hard to believe.

  148. That God will do the impossible in your life if

  149. you live your whole life thinking you're an impostor trying

  150. to talk God out of the choice he made. Oh see,

  151. we don't realize that. That's what imposter syndrome is. Is

  152. the God of the universe looks at all of time.

  153. I'm not gonna preach my time thing because you know,

  154. send the whole side.

  155. But he stands outside of time, looks.

  156. At time, creates, time, chooses you, knowing the perfect plan,

  157. knowing who you are, knowing what you've been through. He says,

  158. I've chosen you, I've called you, this is your moment.

  159. And everybody's like, yeah, but you know, I don't know.

  160. And here's what I want to first start off. The

  161. first part of this sermon is going to be very

  162. graceful and understand it because I get it.

  163. I felt like that at times, like I don't know

  164. why I'm here, I don't know how I'm supposed to

  165. be here. Some of the pressure that the deepest pressure

  166. I've went.

  167. Through in my life is feeling like I am not

  168. supposed to be up here. But here's what I have

  169. realized about imposter syndrome. I need you write this down.

  170. This is like my opening point the whole sermon. At

  171. one point, write this down.

  172. Impostor syndrome is fear's attempt to rob you of the

  173. grace that picked you, positioned you, and empowers you. Impostor

  174. syndrome is fear's attempt to rob you of the grace

  175. that chose you. Here's the truth. If we're gonna talk

  176. about feeling like you don't belong, let's just keep it

  177. a bill.

  178. You don't see anybody shouting on that. That's like, wait,

  179. what do you mean?

  180. No, if we want to talk about it, we cannot

  181. address this issue and embrace the grace of god fully.

  182. Imposter syndrome says man, I don't deserve this, and your

  183. life will say, yeah, you're probably right, but grace steps

  184. in and says, yes, I know you don't deserve it,

  185. but I am God. I covered all your sins. I

  186. died for that.

  187. I chose you.

  188. Imposter syndrome keeps you in a place where you are

  189. compared yourself and feeling like I should be further or

  190. I don't know if I have what it takes, so

  191. I don't know how long I'll keep the job, or

  192. what if.

  193. I don't have anything to say? And I hear you,

  194. I hear you, I hear you.

  195. My only problem is, in order to believe and embrace

  196. this idea of imposter.

  197. Syndrome, you have to ignore a lot of details of

  198. your life. So people want to be honest with you about.

  199. This, But in order to embrace imposter syndrome, you have

  200. to ignore what.

  201. Is really true about your life.

  202. Because there's part of you that looks at your life

  203. and you feel like imposter syndrome is I can't do it,

  204. I'm not good enough. Then there's other details in your

  205. life that tell us, yeah, they did hire you, and

  206. there was a bunch of other people who interviewed as.

  207. Well, and they didn't hire them. But we ignore that fact.

  208. We ignore the fact that for so long you struggled

  209. and couldn't get through in that area. Then all of

  210. a sudden, randomly it worked out, and now you are here,

  211. exactly where you've always.

  212. Wanted to be.

  213. We ignore the fact that, yeah, there were a lot

  214. of people who went through your school, but for some reason,

  215. you made it through with specific education and you got

  216. into that college and God made um miraculous. We skip

  217. over all the stuff God had to do to get

  218. you there, just to focus on the one detail that

  219. now that you're there, all of a sudden, you not qualified.

  220. All of a sudden, it was some accident, all of

  221. a sudden, We don't trust God anymore.

  222. How, We gonna pray prayers for God to.

  223. Answer, then to answer and be like, hey, I don't

  224. know if you made the right choice.

  225. That don't make no sense.

  226. We would legitimate, like God, if you just give me

  227. this job, I promise I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna

  228. give it everything I got.

  229. Then you get the job and they're like, all.

  230. Right, we're gonna have you do a presentation and you're like, oh,

  231. I don't know if I could.

  232. Be doing presentations like that.

  233. You spend all your energy believe in and praying and

  234. asking God to do something with your life, only for

  235. him to say absolutely, let's go, and then you to

  236. spend the rest of your life trying to talk him

  237. out of what he chose.

  238. Talk him out of that.

  239. You know, you were gifted but not gifted enough. You

  240. were called but not called enough. You know I should

  241. be here, but not all the way. And there's other

  242. people who are more qualified, there's other people who might

  243. be And the truth is, yeah, maybe maybe there is.

  244. But how much time are we going.

  245. To waste arguing with God about what he decided?

  246. How much time are we gonna spend?

  247. And let's just be honest, It's like, yeah, I'm go'

  248. probably spend the next two or three years wasting time

  249. arguing with God on whether or not it should start

  250. the business. And then I'll start the business. And then

  251. by the time I start the business, the economic system

  252. will be completely backwards and it'll be opposite than what

  253. it was now, because right now it's prime for me

  254. to start the business. But you know, there's just a

  255. lot of hindrances and a lot of stuff. So I'm

  256. gonna wait three years, not knowing it's gonna be completely sideways.

  257. Then I go three years and the market's not good,

  258. and then I blame the market and talk about, see God,

  259. you wouldn't in this, and I knew you wasn't supposed

  260. to do it because I'm not qualified enough. How much

  261. time have you spent thinking you're not the person? How

  262. much time have you spent thinking I'm not good enough?

  263. How much time have you spent and thinking I can't

  264. be the spouse they think I am. Let's be honest.

  265. You're gonna talk about feeling like an imposter?

  266. How many times as a parent do you feel like

  267. when they gonna find out I don't know what I'm doing,

  268. I'll be thinking that all the time.

  269. And Arlow's about to find out he's seven years old.

  270. I think he almost know. He'd be asking me questions.

  271. He'd be trying to trap me in my own questions.

  272. It's like, oh really, Dad, And it's like, okay, but

  273. imposter SIGRed.

  274. I want you to read this. I want to read

  275. this definition to you.

  276. It says this imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern in

  277. which individuals doubt their accomplishments and have persistent, internalized.

  278. Fear of being exposed as a fraud. Consistent it's a pattern.

  279. It shows up, and we got to be honest about

  280. this because there's many times in our life that we

  281. spend in the moment we've prayed for, but now question

  282. if we should be here. Now when I look in

  283. the scriptures, if there's anybody who had an excuse to

  284. feel like an impostor at times, Peter would just.

  285. Be one of them.

  286. Don't get in twists. There's thousands of people in the

  287. Bible who felt this way. But Peter's life is such.

  288. A rollercoaster, it's so interesting to me. Peter starts off,

  289. he's just regular guy. He's fishing.

  290. This random guy walks up and it's like, hey, why

  291. don't you try to throw your.

  292. Net on the other side. And he's like, hey, dog,

  293. I do this.

  294. I don't know who you are, but we've been doing

  295. this all night. It didn't work, but if you say so,

  296. I'll do it. He throws it over. Biggest catch of

  297. his life. It's Jesus. Then the guy's like, hey, you

  298. like that, Come with me, leave all your stuff behind.

  299. We can tell Peter. It's how you know Peter and

  300. the Disciples. Everybody thinks. Now you think of the Disciples,

  301. they're like damn they were the best.

  302. They were awesome.

  303. No, you got to be at a pretty low level

  304. to just abandon your life work in a moment's notice.

  305. Come on, you gotta be honest about that.

  306. And somebody walks me right now, it's like, hey, quit

  307. your job, leave your family everything. If your life was

  308. going great, you may think a little bit longer. But

  309. all the disciples was like, yeah, absolutely, I ain't got

  310. nothing going on.

  311. I mean, I don't ever talk about that.

  312. That's crazy. Jesus like, hey, leave all your stuff. You've

  313. been fishing for fish. I'm gonna have you fishing for men.

  314. They don't ask no questions, they don't ask what the

  315. metaphor mean. They're like, are we catching people? What are

  316. we doing? I don't know, but let's go with him.

  317. That's legit what the Bible says. They leave everything. He's

  318. a regular guy.

  319. And then he progresses a little bit in his life

  320. and there's this moment where Jesus talking to him and

  321. he's like, hey, who are people saying that I am?

  322. And all of them are like Ion, say you Elijah,

  323. you know cause you're tall, you a little darker like

  324. Elijah was. Some people saying that you most and some

  325. people saying this, some people saying that, and he's like,

  326. I know who you are, though, and Peter has this

  327. revelation of who God is.

  328. He says, I know you're the Christ.

  329. So he goes from me in this regular God to

  330. having this amazing revelation.

  331. Then like two seconds later.

  332. Jesus like get behind me, Satan.

  333. He's like, oh, shoot, okay.

  334. Sometimes I don't know about you, but sometimes that's how

  335. my life feels.

  336. It feels like there's moment where I totally get it

  337. while I'm in worship.

  338. And it feels like, oh, yes, like I heard you God,

  339. I'm gonna do it.

  340. It's perfect. Then there's other moments where I feel like.

  341. Dang completely missed it completely, like not a little bit,

  342. just like that was definitely not what God said and

  343. I prayed and fasted and really thought it would and

  344. it wasn't.

  345. Peter his whole life is this up and down, a

  346. feeling like he's called, and then there's a moment where

  347. he literally steps out of a boat and walks on water.

  348. I was talking to my friend about this and we

  349. were talking about the scripture and it's like, you gotta

  350. have some questions about who wrote this part of the

  351. story with Peter, because they really hyperfixated on the fact that.

  352. He felt they sound like a jealous chump.

  353. Honestly to me, because if I was writing a story,

  354. you wouldn't have ever.

  355. The fall would have been at the very end. I'd

  356. be like, yo, So here's what's happening. Where out on

  357. the water, all right? And then Peter steps out. He's

  358. on top of the water. Really, yes, really, he takes

  359. like eight steps. Eight yes, I counted one tooth.

  360. I was yelling out loud like Peter nus one. And

  361. then you know at the end he fail obviously because

  362. he's a human he can't walk on water. But anyways,

  363. he walked on water. He walks on water, he falls

  364. into the water. He then is the rebel who cuts

  365. off the ear of somebody trying to take Jesus. And

  366. then he says, no, I'll die for you. I'll never

  367. leave you. Then a couple verses later, he's yelling at

  368. a little girl talking about I don't know him. His

  369. life has a lot of data in it to show.

  370. Us a couple of different things.

  371. And this is what I want to draw out about

  372. your life. If you are not careful, you will skip

  373. over massive parts of information that tell you you're important,

  374. you're chosen, and you're valuable, and you're only focused on

  375. the negative. If you want to, we have some data

  376. to say he's an imposter. He was just a regular guy.

  377. He was just a fisherman. He didn't have no training.

  378. He denied Jesus, Jesus rebuked him, and he ran away

  379. and completely abandoned disciples, and he had anger issues and

  380. cut someone's ear off. He's clearly not chosen, clearly not called,

  381. clearly doesn't.

  382. Have what it takes.

  383. He clearly couldn't stand in the moment of pressure. He

  384. clearly is not enough. And you could do the same

  385. in your life. And that's what fear has you does.

  386. It only has you focusing on the three moments where

  387. you didn't get it right, on the three moments where

  388. you didn't have the words to say to the kids,

  389. on the one relationship you didn't work out, on the

  390. one time you didn't manage your running right, and you

  391. will have your life go.

  392. So big and become so small.

  393. Because fear is trying to rob you of the grace

  394. that picked you. Yeah, I know he died for you,

  395. but that wasn't enough for you. I know God called you,

  396. but that wasn't You needed something else. You need something more.

  397. You seem to not have all the pieces everybody else has.

  398. I don't know about you, but I felt that way.

  399. Sometimes it feels like y'all must be playing the game

  400. that I only have one controller too.

  401. Sometimes I feel like how I used to do my

  402. little brother.

  403. I have a little brother named Chandler, and he's eight

  404. years younger than me, and he'd be like, Yo, let's

  405. play PlayStation. And you know, we both have a controller,

  406. but one of them was plugged in and the other

  407. one wasn't. And sometimes I feel like that. I feel like, Yo,

  408. everybody else seems to have this together. Everybody else seems

  409. to not question God. Everybody else seems to just be like, Oh.

  410. Yeah, he's gonna do a miracle. It's awesome.

  411. I totally believe him. I have no doubts at all.

  412. I don't be feeling like that all the time. I

  413. feel like, yes, Lord, I believe you can do it. Also,

  414. at the same time, as many times you haven't done it,

  415. So what are we gonna do? If you're not careful,

  416. you will skip over all the parts of your life

  417. that prove that you're chosen.

  418. Peter, there are parts of the life where he.

  419. Was he was the reckless one, he was the wild one,

  420. and he's also the only human ever to walk on water.

  421. So you can focus on the fact that he fail

  422. or the fact that he stepped out the boat. The

  423. same is truth for your life.

  424. We could talk about the fact that you fail or

  425. the fact that you tried. We could talk about the

  426. fact that maybe you don't have the answers, but the

  427. truth is you stuck with it. Talk about the fact

  428. that maybe you did have a hard time in school

  429. and you didn't make it all the way through. Or

  430. we could talk about the fact that you were the

  431. first one in your family to ever get an acceptance letter.

  432. We could talk about both of them if you want to,

  433. but you cannot.

  434. You cannot skip over massive parts of information of the

  435. grace of God in your life to only believe this

  436. small truth and this small world.

  437. Imposter syndrome has you stuck feeling like.

  438. Man, I'm not the person, I'm not the one, I'm

  439. not the And here's the truth about it. You have

  440. to spend so much time thinking about you in order

  441. to embrace this idea. So the anyway it works, just

  442. in case you were wondering, that's how any trap that

  443. the enemy tries to.

  444. Get you in your mind is.

  445. You just have to focus on you for a very

  446. long time, and that's the way you get stuck in it.

  447. That's the way imposter syndrome works. You have to focus

  448. so hard on what you're not good at.

  449. For this to work.

  450. You have to focus so hard on the little part

  451. of you that you don't like.

  452. You have to focus so much.

  453. The parts that you've missed on the times that you

  454. failed in order.

  455. For this to work.

  456. I want to think about imposter syndrome. There have been

  457. many times in my life where I felt like I

  458. didn't know which way I was supposed to go or

  459. how I ended up in a space. But I was

  460. thinking of this story, and here's kind of my relationship

  461. to this topic. This is where the sermon's gonna change

  462. a little bit from like I get it, I understand,

  463. And now we're kind of moving past that point. Just

  464. in case I can start yelling at you in a second.

  465. You know what happened. I grew up playing basketball.

  466. And I don't play anymore because I'm just not as

  467. good man. I don't like doing things i'm not good at,

  468. that's the truth. But I grew up playing basketball, and

  469. there's always been this moment where I just part of

  470. the probably ninety percent. As I got older, it really

  471. changed this. But most of basketball, for me, the enjoyment

  472. was just talking trash. That's really the most fun you're having.

  473. If you're just playing and like shooting and scoring and winning,

  474. you're only experiencing like six percent of the fun that's

  475. to be had in playing a sport. The other ninety

  476. four percent is telling people how you're gonna do it,

  477. when you're gonna do it, and how they will feel

  478. once you have done it. It's very dangerous. But I

  479. remember I was in the argue one time with one

  480. of my friends and we're going back and forth and

  481. our team is losing, but of course I'm still talking

  482. trash because I have dignity, and so I'm going back

  483. and forth arguing, and pretty much.

  484. It gets that a point where they're like, you're losing,

  485. and I was like, that.

  486. Doesn't matter, you can't guard me. They're like, no, you're

  487. down by twenty. Yeah, and you've never scored in your life. No,

  488. but you just lost the ball. I didn't want the

  489. ball because I've had so much fun embarrassing you that

  490. I thought i'd give someone else a chance, because your

  491. life is not gonna keep going well if you keep

  492. trying to do this.

  493. This is what I be saying. Alabastmam. They're like, I

  494. cannot believe you would say that. Okay, uh, I don't

  495. feel any type way about that. This is part of

  496. the fun.

  497. But pretty much I got to a point where I

  498. stopped focusing on this thing and I was just pretty

  499. much like, yeah, okay, so what I want to give

  500. you a trick. When the enemy tries to suggest to

  501. you that you're not good enough, that you're not called enough,

  502. that you don't have what it takes, you can.

  503. Look at them and be like, yeah, okay, I may.

  504. Not have gotten it right every single time, but you've

  505. been defeated and you ain't got nothing on me. God

  506. chose me. Well, I feel like you don't have what

  507. it takes. Yeah, I may not have what it takes,

  508. but guess what, God's with me, and I don't care

  509. what you think.

  510. Okay, let me give you this example. I'm gonna do

  511. it this way, seem we're gonna illustrate this.

  512. I wanna give you what happens with imposter syndrome. Can

  513. you put that on the screen. Imposter syndrome has like

  514. a language and a narrative and a lot of things

  515. that are said before we jump into this. You can

  516. throw it up on the screen. Here's what you need

  517. to write down on your nose. The only antidote to

  518. imposter syndrome is honesty. The only antidote to imposter syndrome

  519. is honest.

  520. You gotta be.

  521. Honest about everything. So imposters says a lot of things.

  522. Here's some of the things imposter syndrome says. And if

  523. you've ever felt anything any of these things, this will

  524. be good. It says I'll never be good enough. Anybody

  525. ever felt like you ain't never gonna be good enough?

  526. Come on, just be honest, raise your hand like it

  527. don't matter what I do. I'm just not going to

  528. get it. It says I'm not qualified. Anybody ever felt

  529. like you ain't qualified?

  530. Anybody? Come on, I wrote a book and barely made

  531. it through English class. I was feeling unqualified.

  532. They'll regret choosing me. I don't belong in this room.

  533. I don't deserve this. I have no idea what I'm doing.

  534. The first question I would ask this stuff, it says, who,

  535. Because here's what I've learned about imposter syndrome. The only

  536. reason you feel like an impostor is because there is

  537. some manufactured pressure of some imaginary picture you made up

  538. of where you're.

  539. Supposed to be, of how you're supposed to be feeling

  540. doing what you're doing right now. This is the case

  541. for me. It feels like I don't.

  542. Know if this is right because I made up an

  543. idea of how I'm supposed to feel. Imposter syndrome says

  544. all of these things.

  545. But we're gonna talk about the truth today.

  546. I'm gonna give you seven reasons to counteract all of

  547. these confessions. All right, everybody write them down. Number one,

  548. go ahead, put it up on the screen. Number one

  549. is this God chose me.

  550. Okay, let's see number two. I'm not qualified. God chose me.

  551. They're gonna regret choosing me. Oh gosh, what's the truth?

  552. God chose me. I don't belong in this room. Well,

  553. guess what, I definitely don't belong in this room. But

  554. for some reason, God moved other people out of the way,

  555. and I don't know how I made it in this room.

  556. I don't know how I'm up on the stage. But

  557. the one thing I do know is God chose me.

  558. I don't deserve this. Yeah, you're right, I don't deserve

  559. it because I'm imperfect, I'm inconsistent, I'm broken. I got

  560. a lot of stuff I'm still working through. But guess

  561. what God chose me. I have no idea what I'm doing.

  562. You are absolutely correct. I've never raised four kids before,

  563. I've never written a book before, I've never been on

  564. this stage and lift this day. But guess what God

  565. chose me? Here is the question.

  566. You do not need any more information.

  567. If that is true, there's no more convincing. You don't

  568. need to go anything. Either this is true or it's not.

  569. Either God knew all of this. Well, I'm not gonna

  570. be good enough.

  571. Absolutely yes, that yes, right now.

  572. You do not have the skill set to do what

  573. God has called.

  574. You to do.

  575. That is we all know that, And God chose you.

  576. So which one are you gonna build your life on?

  577. Which one are you gonna raise your kids? Out of

  578. which one is gonna determine if you write the music

  579. or not which one is gonna determine if you actually.

  580. Do what he asked you to do.

  581. Is it gonna be the small truth and the one

  582. experience you had in seventh grade? Or is it gonna

  583. be the fact that God chose you.

  584. Which one's gonna win? Which one's gonna win.

  585. And here's the thing, I'm not trying to overlook your

  586. real situation, because you could put anything in this sentence

  587. and on this column that would be an honest truth

  588. of why you feel like you can't do it. And

  589. I'm not saying that you don't have valid reasons. What

  590. I'm saying is there's a way out if you want it.

  591. If you don't want it, that's fine. You can keep that.

  592. You can stay right there.

  593. You can stay focused on who you didn't have and

  594. who wasn't there for you. I get it, I've experienced it.

  595. The only problem is it doesn't help you move forward.

  596. It helps you get pity. It helps you people feel

  597. good for It helps you stay and have an excuse

  598. to never grow. It helps you feel like you can

  599. blame everything on everybody else and never take ownership.

  600. And I'm not mad at you.

  601. I'm just saying there's a way out if you want it.

  602. There's a way out if you want it.

  603. I understand your parents were not there as they have been.

  604. I get it. I hear you, and I am sorry.

  605. That's over here, and you have an opportunity right now

  606. to decide who you're gonna be. You have an opportunity

  607. to be what you never saw. You have an opportunity

  608. to embrace a new life and to let them go,

  609. or you can live your whole life mad at.

  610. Them even though they're not here. This is real, I

  611. get it, I hear you.

  612. The only problem is there are people who are waiting

  613. for you over here. They're waiting for you to say, hey,

  614. I didn't have everything I needed. I wish I would

  615. have been set up more. I wish I would have

  616. had more information. I wish they would have taught me

  617. some more stuff. But the fact is God chose me,

  618. He brought me here, and I cannot waste my time

  619. wishing for things.

  620. I never had.

  621. Some of us will have spent so much time waiting

  622. for this perfect scenario where we will feel like God

  623. chose us and he made the right decision.

  624. Maybe that's not true for you, Maybe that's how I feel.

  625. Maybe I've have felt that God chose me, and then

  626. there would be this one miraculous moment where I felt

  627. like what he called me. Peter has this interaction with

  628. Jesus where he tells him like, you are the Christ absolutely,

  629. and God says, from now on you will be called

  630. Simon Peter, which is you are a rock and on

  631. this rock I will build my church.

  632. Here's my question, at what point did he become the rock?

  633. What point you know he gets called as Simon and

  634. then he has this experience where God says, you are

  635. a rock and on this rock I will build my church.

  636. Is he the rock when he walked on the water

  637. or when he fell in? Was he a rock when

  638. he had the revelation of Jesus? Was he a rock

  639. when he said I'll die for you? And then did

  640. God take away the rock thing because he denied him

  641. and it was like, clearly you're not the rock no

  642. more because you're flipping back and forth.

  643. When was he the rock? At what point? Did exactly?

  644. Was it the moment where he came back to Jesus

  645. and they're on the beach and he's fishing and he

  646. hears that voice again that says, throw your thing on

  647. the other side, and he recognizes it, and the Bible

  648. tells us that he had taken off his clothes and

  649. shirt because he was so hot. He puts on his

  650. clothes to jump in the water. He's completely out of

  651. his mind, comes back to Jesus.

  652. Is that the moment he's the rock?

  653. Here's my question, at what moment are you waiting for

  654. where you're gonna feel like what he said? There are

  655. many times in our life where we hear God says you,

  656. I have chosen you, I've called you, I've picked you,

  657. I have a plan for you, and you are going

  658. to do this, this, and this, and we say, okay,

  659. I'm just waiting to feel like that person, because once

  660. I feel like that person, then I'll be able to

  661. be that person.

  662. Let me tell you, you're gonna be waiting a long time.

  663. I don't know if he felt like a rock when

  664. he was standing on the water.

  665. Maybe he felt more like a rock when he.

  666. Sank, because that's the truth of what it feels like.

  667. Sometimes it feel like, oh, this is when you kicked

  668. in the rock thing, because I immediately, let.

  669. Me tell you the truth, he was a rock the

  670. whole time. This is what Jesus does.

  671. He calls you what you cannot see right now, and

  672. you are waiting to feel something outside of who you

  673. are right now.

  674. And Jesus knows you are a rock. You just don't

  675. see it. Yet. You have the power because here's the

  676. crazy thing about his life. From the man who.

  677. Cuts off people's ears, rejects, Jesus runs away, abandons being

  678. a disciple, He's also the first person to preach and

  679. thirty thousand people get saved.

  680. Same person. He was a rock the whole time. And

  681. I want to encourage you. I know right now you.

  682. Feel like an imposter because you don't feel like what

  683. God said. The only thing I'm saying to you is

  684. you don't have to wait to feel anything to be something.

  685. I'm gonna say that again.

  686. You don't have to sit around waiting to feel like Okay,

  687. I feel like the husband supposed to be. I feel

  688. like the spouse I'm supposed to be. I feel like no, no, no,

  689. I'm not checking for how I feel. That is not

  690. an indicator of what I'm gonna do. Imposter syndrome is

  691. fear's way of trying to rob you of God's grace.

  692. Listen here, here's the idea. We've already established that imposter syndrome.

  693. I was gonna say it very clearly. It's honestly just

  694. a waste of time. There's a bottom line of it.

  695. We can spend our time focusing on the fact that

  696. we feel insignificant, that we feel insecure, or we can

  697. spend time saying, you know what, God has chosen me,

  698. and this is the most important thing. There is an

  699. imposter syndrome that does plague a group of believers that

  700. I am actually very very.

  701. Concerned about, and this is it.

  702. The imposter syndrome that knows God chose you, that knows

  703. He puts something on the inside of you, but because

  704. you're afraid of what other people would think if you

  705. actually showed up as who you are, you don't act

  706. like He chose you. That's the real imposter syndrome to

  707. be worried about. The imposter syndrome that knows you're valuable

  708. but tries to downplay it for other people.

  709. The imposter syndrome that knows.

  710. God puts something on the inside of you, but you

  711. do the whole fake, humble.

  712. Thing and like, nah, yeah, actually I don't know, and.

  713. You use that as an excuse to stay stuck your

  714. whole life acting like God did not put something on

  715. the inside of you. One of the biggest imposter syndromes

  716. is to act like.

  717. He did not choose you. And here's what a lie.

  718. And I honestly, I really don't know why I'm thinking

  719. about a babe. I was riding my bike this morning

  720. trying to think of why this is a thing.

  721. But I genuinely do not understand that we.

  722. Get saved by this miraculous grace God. The Bible says,

  723. the same power that raised Christ from the dead is

  724. just given to us, placed on the inside of us.

  725. We are given purpose before him.

  726. Our life has.

  727. Zero meaning and we're just living doing what we want.

  728. God gives us this miraculous power. We have eternal life forever,

  729. and then for some reason after that, we go into

  730. this just like, yeah, I'm not.

  731. That important, I'm not that big of a deal. I

  732. don't know.

  733. And for some reason in church culture, anybody who is

  734. confident is cocky and prideful.

  735. That's the only way we relate to in church. Somebody

  736. would be like.

  737. Yeah, God has called me to do this, and I'm

  738. gonna do it, and I'm gonna be exactly.

  739. Who he called me to be. Somebody.

  740. I'll be like, okay, well, you know, have you been

  741. to the Bible study yet?

  742. Have you read the entire Bible? Think about this, You've

  743. met people. We'll do this. People will get saved at

  744. the altar.

  745. They'll be crying, they'll be doing a completely different life,

  746. all these different things. Then they'll come back and be like,

  747. I'm starting a Bible study in my room with my friends.

  748. And they're like, whoa, You're starting a Bible study. You

  749. just got saved on Sunday? What are you doing?

  750. Somebody you are like, yeah, absolutely, Okay, do you hold on?

  751. I just caught a stutter because of how frustrated that was.

  752. I don't know if you've ever heard of Paul. I

  753. don't think you've ever read the bib Okay, I'm gonna

  754. have to do it all right, Okay, we're gonna go

  755. read Galatians. Okay, this is what the Bible said Galatians one.

  756. Fifteen and once again, team, so sorry. I didn't give

  757. you any of these scriptures. Before I was born.

  758. God chose me, and he called me by his marvelous grace.

  759. Let's go down.

  760. It says When this happened, I didn't rush out to

  761. consult with any humans. I didn't go to Jerusalem to

  762. consult the apostles before I was there. I went straight there.

  763. Then three years later I went to Jerusalem. I got

  764. to know Peter a little bit. The other apostles I

  765. met was James, the Lord's brother. I declare before God

  766. that what I'm writing is not a lie.

  767. Paul says, I'm gonna find this one scripture because it's

  768. so gangster.

  769. Give me a second. Here it says this. They praise

  770. God because of me. Then fourteen years later I went

  771. back to Jerusalem again. This time Barnabas and Titus came along.

  772. I went there because God revealed to me that I

  773. should go. When I was there, I met privately with

  774. those who considered to be leaders of the church.

  775. I share with them the message I had been preaching.

  776. I wanted to make sure we were in agreement, for

  777. I feared that all my efforts.

  778. Had been wasted. They supported me, didn't even demand that

  779. my companion.

  780. Titus be circumcised, Thank God for Titus.

  781. Titus was like, oh, thank you Jesus. Can you imagine.

  782. Yos uh Sam gotta be circumcised or no, and they're

  783. all like, uh no, he's good.

  784. Listen to this said.

  785. The leaders of the church had nothing to add to

  786. what I was preaching.

  787. Listen to this parentheses.

  788. This is amazing by the way, their reputation as great

  789. leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites. Instead,

  790. they saw that God had given me the responsibility to

  791. preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, just that he had

  792. given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews. For

  793. the God who worked through Peter as an apostle to

  794. the Jews is the same God that worked through me

  795. as an apostle to the gentiles.

  796. What is he saying.

  797. I did not waste fourteen years of my life trying

  798. to go get checks and balances from people who didn't

  799. knock me off of my donkey and call me to preach.

  800. I didn't waste my time trying to make sure I

  801. went to enough classes so I was equipped enough to

  802. do what God had called me to do. If Jesus

  803. met me on the road to Damascus and said I

  804. have need of you, I got off of my stuff,

  805. I went to the place, got my eyes opened, and

  806. I immediately started doing what he asked me to do.

  807. And the truth is, Paul would not make it in

  808. a lot of discipleship programs in twenty twenty five. He

  809. would have had to go to the New Believer's class,

  810. and then he would had to come to Bible study

  811. for eighteen weeks, and then we would have to make

  812. sure that he's not looking at pornography, because if you

  813. look once, God cancels your calling for at least ten

  814. years until you're affirmed again.

  815. That's how we think about it.

  816. Now. Okay, now we all acting weird, looking at me

  817. crazy because I got a crop shirt on and it

  818. says ace and I'm speaking the truth.

  819. Okay, this is what we do. How crazy is that.

  820. God calls people, then we as humans make it all

  821. right to choose if they're ready or not.

  822. I have no time for you to decide about what

  823. God called me to do. You can spend time over there.

  824. Wondering if I'm okay, if I got enough to do.

  825. What it takes. You stay over there. But as for

  826. me and my house.

  827. I'm not wasting no time worried about you, Worried if

  828. I'm cold enough, Worried if I'm good enough.

  829. Maybe the truth is, I know I'm not good enough.

  830. I know I don't have what it takes. I know

  831. he chooses the.

  832. Most broken and messed up people to do his best work.

  833. I would only feel.

  834. Like an impostor if I didn't know how broken I was.

  835. But don't get it twisted. I know me. I know

  836. I'm not qualified. I know I shouldn't be up here.

  837. I know God could have chose anybody else, but guess what,

  838. he didn't choose anybody else.

  839. He chose me.

  840. So I'm gonna stop wasting time in useless arguments that

  841. land nowhere. I'm not mad at getting research and going

  842. to school and learning more information. But if you think

  843. you gonna get more degrees and all of a sudden

  844. you not gonna feel like you still don't have what

  845. it takes.

  846. It's just not true. You're still gonna have to decide.

  847. I believe God chose me, And until you deal with that,

  848. it doesn't matter who affirms you.

  849. It don't matter how many degrees you get, it don't

  850. matter how.

  851. Much success you have, because you will always feel like

  852. I'm just.

  853. Not like them.

  854. I just don't have what they have, and I just

  855. haven't done what they've done, and I'm.

  856. Just that is a waste of your time, Such a

  857. waste of time when you could just decide what, Yeah, I.

  858. Don't have the answers. I don't know how to do this.

  859. I've never done it before. Nobody my family's ever done

  860. it before.

  861. Nobody at all has ever done this before.

  862. And who cares?

  863. That might be one of the most spiritual things you

  864. could say to yourself.

  865. What if you don't do it? Who cares? I don't.

  866. I don't have time to care about that.

  867. It's a waste of my time to care if I'm

  868. going to what if the sermon is bad? What if

  869. it's bad, Let's go down the road. I be thinking

  870. that something. I'll be standing over there be.

  871. Like, good God, what if this is bad.

  872. I'll be thinking of that still sometimes and it's like,

  873. what if it's bad.

  874. What happens?

  875. Well, then everybody in a room falls away from Christ

  876. because they were waiting on you to decide if they

  877. were gonna no, that's not true. If it's bad, all

  878. the church Mama's over here are gonna be like that

  879. was the best sermon I ever heard in my life.

  880. Swedenh you are so good, You are so annointed. My

  881. wife gonna tell me is good. Carl gonna tell me

  882. on Tuesday, Hey, brother, you want to come over and

  883. talk about that. And now I'm gonna get better. And

  884. that's gonna be it. And now I'll get back from here.

  885. Next Sunday I'm gonna preach again.

  886. That's it. Where does it show up in your life?

  887. Where does that conversation go in your mind? Because for

  888. many of us, what it does is it keeps us

  889. stuck at start or what if it's bad?

  890. Or what if they don't like it? And what if

  891. they don't like it so much that they never say

  892. anything to me again? And what if they leave me?

  893. Okay, let me just stay where I am so nothing changes.

  894. Let me just never take the risks so that way

  895. I know I won't fall. Some of y'all will not

  896. be y'all, y'all be I'm gonna be honest with you.

  897. I've been married with my wife for ten years now,

  898. and I do not understand sometimes talking to single people,

  899. I don't understand.

  900. I'll be trying to be pastoral.

  901. I be trying to be like helping them out, and

  902. some of them the first place we start is like, hey,

  903. I know.

  904. You think you a thousand on the hot meter, but

  905. you may want to drop your gears.

  906. Into like a low two just to calibrate for where

  907. you are.

  908. That's the first issue of single this know yourself.

  909. I'm just saying, I got some people that are like, yeah,

  910. I'm waiting on Beyonce and Kiddle Jenny to pull up,

  911. And it's like, you might want to look across the

  912. aisle at QT and just let God do something, because

  913. that is a grave level of self awareness that you lack.

  914. God you're saying, Man, you gotta know where you are.

  915. It's crazy. I love you. It's not personal, it's just

  916. the facts. But one of the conversations I have with people.

  917. Is so worried about what could happen if you with somebody.

  918. This has been happening when since I was a youth pastor.

  919. I'm being a youth pastor and talking to people and

  920. people be like, well, what happens if I get with

  921. them and they're not write one? Like, well, first of all,

  922. you said, Tea, I can almost guarantee you they're not

  923. the one. I will bet my right leg that Sam

  924. is not the one for you. But the only way

  925. to protect yourself from that disappointment is to never play.

  926. The only way to protect yourself from guaranteeing your heart

  927. will never be broken is to never love anyone. The

  928. only way to promise yourself that you will never feel

  929. abandonment in a friendship is to never have any friends.

  930. The only way to guarantee you never feel the sting

  931. of failure in front of people who you told your

  932. idea to is to never do your idea. And the

  933. question is which life do you want? Do you want

  934. a life where you have to risk it in front

  935. of people? Because if Peter never steps out the boat,

  936. we don't get the story about him falling and he

  937. never has to deal with that.

  938. But we also never get the picture of what is possible.

  939. And there are a lot of people who are hedging

  940. a lot of their bets because they just don't want

  941. the risk of what could happen.

  942. I'm not mad at you, I get it, but there's

  943. a lot you're leaving on the table. Peter, he is

  944. a rock.

  945. And for my three points today, it's very profound, very prophetic.

  946. Three points title is how to Become a Rock.

  947. It was a joke. It wasn't prophetic, It was just

  948. a joke.

  949. Okay, Peter is a rock, He is a foundation. He

  950. is someone that God chose and he lives his life

  951. as such.

  952. I want to give you three points a day of how.

  953. Do we become somebody who is a rock, who sees

  954. and becomes who God has calls to be. I nerded

  955. out a little bit on this and I started to

  956. be doing a research.

  957. I literally just straight up ask chat Gpt, how does

  958. a rock become a rock?

  959. It's a pretty deep question, and this is crazy, I

  960. literally thought, and I started digging and doing all types

  961. of research and three things on how a.

  962. Rock becomes a rock and how you go become a rock.

  963. The first thing you need for a rock to become

  964. a rock is fire. Don't be mad at me. You

  965. can take this up with chat Gibt if you will.

  966. First thing a rock needs is fire. It needs heat.

  967. It needs to be purified.

  968. It needs to go through something to see what it's

  969. really made of. It needs to have a moment where

  970. a question what's on the inside of it. The only

  971. way it becomes something that is sturdy enough for other

  972. things to be anchored to is to find.

  973. Out it is tried and it is true. The truth

  974. is if you want to.

  975. Live outside of imposter syndrome and know who you are.

  976. You want to become a rock in your identity.

  977. You want to not be shaken every time someone looks

  978. at you sideways. You want to not be concerned with

  979. the outcome of other people and run your race. The

  980. first thing you gonna need is you don't have to

  981. go through some fire. You ain't gonna find out who

  982. you are ntil you go through some fire. You're not

  983. gonna know exactly what you're made of until you go

  984. through some fire. You're not gonna be able to stand

  985. in adversity in front of your family unless you've been

  986. through some fire. And we cannot ask to be made

  987. into something with escaping the process.

  988. You're gonna have to go through some fire.

  989. And if anybody sold to you that Jesus is the

  990. one that gets you out of fire, so you ain't

  991. never gotta go in, it not true, not how it

  992. works at all. Going and following Jesus is almost a

  993. guarantee you gonna go through the fire. Because here's the deal.

  994. You don't have to be worried about being attacked when

  995. you're not in the game. You don't have to worry

  996. about being hit in football standing on the sidelines. The

  997. only time you have to be worried is when you

  998. decide to get in the game. And the same is

  999. true about your life. Instead of seeing the fire as

  1000. discouragement that maybe you're not going the right way and

  1001. maybe this was wrong, and maybe God's not with me,

  1002. and maybe I made it mistake. Maybe God's trying to

  1003. show you who you really are. Maybe he's trying to

  1004. show you that there's some things in you that don't

  1005. need to be on the inside of you.

  1006. What does fire look like. It looked like tension in

  1007. your relationships.

  1008. Come on, I'm making this practical, not like the spiritual

  1009. fire where you're like, God, burn me up. Now I'm

  1010. talking about you've been fighting with your spouse for two months.

  1011. That's the type of fire I'm talking about, because the

  1012. only way you see you sometimes is when you're looking

  1013. in that mirror.

  1014. That you're married. Sometimes fire is your kids acting crazy.

  1015. Now this is the one that begetting me.

  1016. I can't even lie because I be thinking like I'm

  1017. calm and peaceful and we got all these confessions.

  1018. But my wife will tell you there is a.

  1019. Side of me where I will lose my mind, and

  1020. I just start making promises that ain't trust.

  1021. Like I will take everything and return it. I'll be

  1022. saying I say that four times week to my kids.

  1023. Clean up your room? Why? Whoa wah? Why?

  1024. Why?

  1025. Why? Why wouldn't do nothing? Clean up your room? Okay, dad,

  1026. were gonna clean up ro come it's not clear why? Okay,

  1027. get put it in trash bags. Go get trash bags

  1028. or doing everything's going to the good will. They don't

  1029. even know what the good will is.

  1030. I'm like, you just pack it up, Jade, yes, the

  1031. doll pack it up, gone, somebody else needs it.

  1032. You don't want to be grateful. We ain't having nothing.

  1033. You're gonna be broke the rest of your life. It's like, what, man?

  1034. What is that? That is a real thing for me?

  1035. I realize how impatient and quick to anger I am

  1036. when I'm talking to a four year old who does

  1037. not care what I'm asking them to do, and I

  1038. think the issue is them. And then halfway through me yelling,

  1039. the Holy Spirit's.

  1040. Like, wow, so this is how you get down? Huh?

  1041. And I'm like, you know what, Jade, I'll be.

  1042. Right back, But you need something in your life to

  1043. show you. Hey, there are still parts of you that

  1044. need to be worked on. This is why you gotta

  1045. have friends in your life. And you can't abandon every

  1046. friendship when they get on your nerves because maybe it's

  1047. not them, maybe it's you.

  1048. All my friends is just talk about me. You mean.

  1049. They try to give you feedback, They try to tell you, hey,

  1050. you're rude. You try to change me. Yes, we are

  1051. trying to change you.

  1052. We are you are mean, and we want you to change.

  1053. That's fire, that's friction, but it's a good thing and

  1054. mean fire. The next thing you need is pressure. Pressure.

  1055. I've had to change and adjust my relationship to pressure.

  1056. Because here's a beautiful thing.

  1057. When you go through the fire, you get confirmation of

  1058. what you're made of, so you know you can handle

  1059. the pressure. You can't skip this step. You gotta go

  1060. through the fire first because the fire shows you what's

  1061. really on the inside of you, and the fire purifies

  1062. and solidifies what God.

  1063. Has given you.

  1064. That way, when you get in the pressure, you don't

  1065. have to be questioning who you are. I'm trying to

  1066. tell you something I have lived out and am living out.

  1067. You go through the fire to figure out who you are,

  1068. so that.

  1069. When you get under pressure, you don't wonder about who

  1070. you are. I do be asking how we're gonna make it,

  1071. though you know what I'm saying, that's two different questions,

  1072. who am I versus how we gonna make it? But

  1073. I'm not questioning who I am. This is how people

  1074. get jobs and you don't know who you are and

  1075. you start acting like a different person trying to get

  1076. a promotion because you didn't go through the fire to

  1077. figure out who you were and decide who you were

  1078. gonna be. So then you got under some pressure, and

  1079. some people you liked liked you, and some people who

  1080. have some money gave you an opportunity, and you start

  1081. changing up who you are under pressure. Don't switch up

  1082. under pressure. The pressure is trying to build something in you.

  1083. It's trying to solidify something in you. And here's the

  1084. beautiful thing about pressure. Some of us will never become

  1085. the version of ourselfs we've always wanted to.

  1086. Be without pressure.

  1087. I didn't become the man I am today without the

  1088. pressure of having an entire family.

  1089. The pressure it.

  1090. Is to say, Okay, I'm responsible for my wife and

  1091. I'm responsible for these three for kids. That pressure brought

  1092. something out of me. The pressure of people depinding, the

  1093. pressure of stepping up.

  1094. And I'm not talking about a brad pressure. I'm talking

  1095. about good pressure.

  1096. Now, pressure that you manufacture, not pressure that's like, oh.

  1097. What are they gonna do?

  1098. The pressure of Okay, there's a real responsibility I have.

  1099. Responsibility is good for you. Let me say that. I'm

  1100. almost said, I almost just became an old person. I

  1101. wonst said young people.

  1102. That was like a I am a young person, but

  1103. I'm talking to younger than me.

  1104. Responsibility is good.

  1105. It's a good thing to have people depending on what

  1106. you say. It's a good thing to have people saying, hey,

  1107. I need a leader, and this person's gonna step It's

  1108. a good thing to have that pressure because that pressure

  1109. brings something out of you. Fire pressure, thing that happens

  1110. to a rock before it comes from a rock.

  1111. I'm not lying.

  1112. As it transforms, metamorphic rock is what it would be.

  1113. Marble is this way fire pressure.

  1114. And then scientists will tell you it's almost like all

  1115. of a sudden, it's intense fire, intense pressure. But there's

  1116. this gap in the process of rock formations where they.

  1117. Can't actually pinpoint.

  1118. Exactly where and when it happens, they don't know what

  1119. moment it was. They don't know what exactly the temperature is,

  1120. they don't know exactly the pounds of pressure.

  1121. But there's this.

  1122. Moment where the rock goes from something that was shaky

  1123. and unstable and it starts to form into something else.

  1124. And I need you to know, friend, your life is

  1125. the same way. I know you feel like you're in

  1126. fire and.

  1127. It's taken some things, and it's burned up some things,

  1128. and it's hurt you in some ways. I know you

  1129. feel like you're under pressure.

  1130. But I promise you there is a transformation. You're not

  1131. gonna be able to pinpoint it. You're not gonna be

  1132. able to exactly know where it is. You're not gonna

  1133. know exactly what moment is. But I promise you there

  1134. will be a moment where you will look up and

  1135. look around in.

  1136. Your life and you'll say, when did all this peace

  1137. get here? I feel that so strongly.

  1138. There are some of you You've been under so much

  1139. fire and so much pressure. But I promise you gonna

  1140. look up one day and say, who when did all

  1141. this joy show up?

  1142. Some of you? You?

  1143. And here's the thing, why you have to throw imposter

  1144. syndrome out the window is because it'll keep you from

  1145. ever experiencing that part of your story. It'll keep you

  1146. from realizing you've been a rock the whole time. It'll

  1147. keep you from being an example people need. It'll keep

  1148. you stuck in comparing yourself the people you were never

  1149. supposed to be Like.

  1150. This sermon isn't the truth is.

  1151. This Sermon's gonna take some responsibility from you. It's gonna

  1152. be a fight, It's gonna be work. Any transformation is work,

  1153. Any change is work. But today I want to close

  1154. this sermon praying for something supernatural. You know, there's two

  1155. ways you can find something out.

  1156. You can find out through information or you can find

  1157. out through revelation.

  1158. Practical example, I fell in love with my wife just

  1159. like in a random moment.

  1160. We stayed in love with.

  1161. A lot of work and a lot of time and

  1162. a lot of effort. But I will never forget when

  1163. I saw Abby Rose Henry walk around the corner. I'd

  1164. already creeped her on Instagram and found her Instagram, and it.

  1165. Tried to act like I didn't know her, but I

  1166. remember when I saw her, and then I remember us

  1167. going to.

  1168. Get food, and it was somewhere between the tie food.

  1169. And driving to the coffee shop after.

  1170. I had known her for like two weeks where I thought,

  1171. I think I.

  1172. Love that girl. It was an instant. It wasn't some

  1173. random time.

  1174. Then there are other people that your journey of some

  1175. people I have, some of our friends.

  1176. That were like, yeah, I didn't really like him at first,

  1177. which I was like, if my spouse was saying that,

  1178. I would be tore up. But my friend's really strong,

  1179. that's great.

  1180. But they said it was over really time, and the

  1181. more time I spent with them and the more I

  1182. was around them, something. Over time there was this moment

  1183. where I realized, Man, this is my person. There are

  1184. two ways to find out who you are. Some of you,

  1185. you're gonna have to go through the fire. You've been

  1186. through the pressure, and you've experienced the transformation.

  1187. But there are some of you.

  1188. I am praying, and I'm gonna pray today that you

  1189. wouldn't have to spend no more time trying.

  1190. To question who you are.

  1191. You wouldn't have to spend time trying to wrestle. Today,

  1192. we are genuinely going to pray that God would give

  1193. you a revelation of your identity that not another day

  1194. would you question who you are? And if you're enough,

  1195. you're gonna have questions on how it's gonna work, on

  1196. what God's gonna do, on what the path is gonna be,

  1197. But not for another day in your life.

  1198. Are you gonna sit here trying to wake up thinking

  1199. I don't know if I have what it takes. I

  1200. don't know if I can be what they want me

  1201. to be. Who cares?

  1202. God has chosen you and He's called you for this moment.

  1203. Here's what we're gonna do.

  1204. If you genuine and this is probably gonna be fifty

  1205. million people, but it's okay.

  1206. I'm gonna ask every person.

  1207. Who you need a genuine revelation of who you are? Like,

  1208. identity and who you are is something you struggle with.

  1209. Now here's the thing. I'm gonna count the three. I'm

  1210. gonna ask you to stand up.

  1211. If this is you, Before you stand up, you are

  1212. responsible for what happens when you stand up.

  1213. And I learned this being a youth pastor. You do

  1214. author calls and every.

  1215. Six thousand kids be like, yeah, immediately I'm to the altar.

  1216. I need to do it because you see other people

  1217. standing up and you feel like you need to stand up.

  1218. Only stand up if you're ready to take the responsibility

  1219. of finding out who you are, because once you find

  1220. out who you are, you can't act like you're not

  1221. that person. Once you find out God give you that idea, you're.

  1222. Not responsible to go back and start working on it.

  1223. Once you find out that God did call you to

  1224. raise those parents, you're gonna have to go back and

  1225. apologize to him and say, hey, Dad has to reintroduce

  1226. himself as the new father that I am. And so

  1227. this stuff I used to let you do because I

  1228. was trying to get you to like me, because me.

  1229. And your mama is going through it.

  1230. I'm not gonna do that no more because I'm responsible

  1231. for you and I gotta raise you to be a

  1232. man and woman of God.

  1233. And so you're gonna be responsible for what happens with you.

  1234. Stand up. But if you.

  1235. Say I need a revelation of who I am, I've

  1236. been fighting. If I'm called, I've been fighting. If I'm enough,

  1237. I've been fighting imposter syndrome.

  1238. I'm gonna countter three. I'm gonna ask you to stand

  1239. up in the room and online. And this is going

  1240. to be a powerful moment for you.

  1241. I promise it's not gonna fix everything, but it is

  1242. gonna change something.

  1243. One two three.

  1244. Right now, all of this room your identity today. You

  1245. need a revelation of your identity. Stand up, everybody stays standing.

  1246. I want to say, I'm proud of you, that same.

  1247. Feeling right there. I want you to register something.

  1248. The same courage it took for you to stand up

  1249. wondering about what your friend was gonna think next to you,

  1250. who didn't stood up but should have stood up. That's

  1251. the same courage that it's gonna take every single morning when

  1252. you get out of bed.

  1253. Would you buy your heads and close your eyes?

  1254. God, right now, I pray supernaturally that you would reveal

  1255. who you are and who they are in this moment,

  1256. show them the infinite value they have because of who

  1257. you are. I pray against old wounds right now that

  1258. have kept people stuck. Words they never got from their

  1259. mom and dad, words they never got from someone in

  1260. their life.

  1261. Lord Jesus, I pray you would empower.

  1262. Them to release it right now, to release the hurt,

  1263. to release the pain, to release the fear, to release

  1264. that feeling of being overlooked and undervalue. God, I pray

  1265. it is broken, and in this moment, I pray for

  1266. a revelation of identity that they would know, without a

  1267. shadow of a doubt, that you have chosen them.

  1268. They would know, without a shadow of a doubt that

  1269. you are with them, that there's not a situation in.

  1270. Their life that you have not called them to and

  1271. prepared them for. If you just stood up, you can

  1272. go ahead and take a seat for just a moment.

  1273. Every head bow, every eye closed.

  1274. Maybe you're in this room and you've never accepted Jesus

  1275. as your Lord and savior.

  1276. I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm a level with you.

  1277. You're gonna spend a lot of your life trying to

  1278. figure out who you are unless you find someone who

  1279. can tell you.

  1280. Jesus is the only person that can show you who

  1281. you really are. Money tries to tell you, it can

  1282. show you.

  1283. People feel like they can show.

  1284. You, But the truth is, Jesus is the only person

  1285. who can tell you the infinite value that you have.

  1286. And if you're in this room and you've never accepted

  1287. Jesus as your Lord and savior, what does that mean.

  1288. It means you give up trying to run your own life.

  1289. That's the short of it. The beautiful story is is

  1290. that Jesus came to this earth, he lived a beautiful,

  1291. perfect life, and he died on a cross for our sin.

  1292. What is sin? Sin is us making mistakes.

  1293. It's us doing things we don't want to do, being

  1294. the person we don't want to be, and that's sin.

  1295. It separates us from God. But when Jesus died, that

  1296. drew us close to God. And when you accept Jesus,

  1297. you get that new life. If you've been looking for

  1298. a new start, looking for a fresh start, you want

  1299. to become somebody different, I'm a counter three.

  1300. I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand. Every head bout,

  1301. every eye close.

  1302. If you want to accept Jesus, this is the moment

  1303. for you. Don't worry about anything else. You've been worried

  1304. about how you're gonna make it. You've been some of

  1305. you are under so much pressure and you don't have

  1306. the answer. And this is the moment that changes everything.

  1307. If you want to accept Jesus as your Lord and savior,

  1308. I'm gonna counter three and you're gonna raise your hand boldly, one.

  1309. He loves you too. Today is the day of salvation.

  1310. Three lifts your hand right now, all over this room

  1311. and online you want to accept Jesus, I see you

  1312. right here, both fam so proud of you, so proud

  1313. of you.

  1314. Over here, I got you on the top, so proud

  1315. of you. I see you since I'm so proud of you.

  1316. But everybody repeat this prayer out loud after me say,

  1317. Dear God, I admit I've made mistakes, Save me, change me,

  1318. make me new, and.

  1319. Jesus name I pray. Amen.

  1320. Can we give it up for everybody who just prayed

  1321. that prayer of salvation giving their life to Jesus.

  1322. I'm so proud of you. Hey, listen, we are about

  1323. to close out our service.

  1324. But if you text, if you just got saved today.

  1325. You prayed that prayer.

  1326. Once you text the word save to the number that

  1327. comes up on the screen, and if you're online, in

  1328. just a moment, we're gonna jump online and pray over

  1329. your prayer request.

  1330. But I'm so grateful for everybody who came to church