Sermon
What If I’m An Imposter? // God Chose You (Part 5) // Pastor Charles Metcalf
Publisher transcript
Transcript
-
Welcome to Transformation Church podcast, where we represent God to
-
the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so
-
glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe
-
God will transform your life. Do today's message.
-
We are in week five, Week number five of a
-
series called God Chose You. Look at your neighbor and
-
tell them God chose you.
-
As rights, God chose you. God Chose You's.
-
Based off a book and just released a couple of
-
weeks ago called God Chose Me. And the idea is
-
for you to know this book was not written in
-
This message is not about God choosing an individual for
-
you to look at and be impressed by.
-
The goal would be is that you would understand that.
-
Where you are, how you are, no matter what you've
-
been through, God has chosen you. It is one of
-
the most centrally important ideas of your life. That you
-
understand your life. It's not an accident. It is not chance.
-
You didn't get there because someone hired you. It wasn't
-
anybody else's responsibility that you are at where you are at.
-
God has chosen you. Somebody just say real quick, God
-
chose me. You have to embrace this. This is a
-
daily confession.
-
It's a daily something you have to remind yourself of
-
because situations and life and seasons will try to suggest
-
that you are not chosen, that you're not special, that
-
you're not unique, that there's nothing important specifically about your life,
-
and it's just not true. There's nobody on the planet
-
Earth that has the fingerprint you do.
-
There's nobody that has the story you have. There's nobody who.
-
Has heard and sensed and seeing God in the way
-
that you've seen him.
-
There's nobody like you. And as much as the world.
-
And social media tries to tell you you're not that
-
special or not that important unless a lot of people
-
are looking at you, that is not what God says
-
and what he believes.
-
About your life. You're special, You're valuable, some of you.
-
The truth is, it's hard to believe this because you
-
never heard those words.
-
Growing up. It was be quiet, it was just get
-
out the way, it was just moving.
-
So a lot of our adult life is spent trying
-
to achieve things so.
-
That people will choose us. Well, we gotta be honest.
-
I'll do a good job, I'll do these things, and
-
then somebody will see me and choose me. The only
-
problem is that you spend most of your life trying
-
to press people you don't care about and they don't
-
care about you, only to get it to realize if
-
it's not what you really needed. There's a famous actor
-
that was quoted one time that said, I wish everybody
-
could get everything they ever wanted, just to realize.
-
It's not what they actually want.
-
Some of y'all are like, but let me try it though.
-
Let me just I feel you, but you may not
-
have done it right. The truth is, we gotta be
-
honest about this, So I'm excited. We're gonna jump into
-
week five. If you got your Bible's turned to Luke
-
chapter number twenty two, Luke twenty two.
-
We're gonna look at doctor Luke.
-
If you didn't know that Luke's a doctor at least
-
that's what has to say all the time.
-
So I just be saying it. No, I'm joking. Luke
-
Chapter twenty two. We're gonna read two verses and then
-
we'll jump right in Luke chapter number twenty two. This
-
is what it says. First number thirty.
-
Three, Peter said, Lord, I'm ready to go to prison
-
with you.
-
Come on, y'all, got any friends that you go to
-
jail for. Come on, some of y'all.
-
Somebody said, nope, no, I don't. No, I ain't going
-
to jail for nobody. I'm gonna say that right now,
-
not nobody. I will tattletale so quick, I'll be like, Yep,
-
Aaron did it.
-
It was Aaron. I saw him. His fingerprints are all
-
over the place. He stole it all. I had nothing
-
to do with it.
-
Shout out to my friends bringing Aaron. This is their
-
shirt for the baby boy Ace. I love you, but
-
I will snitch on you, though, so just know that.
-
Peter said, Lord, I'm ready to go to prison with
-
you and even to die with you. Let's jump forward
-
and see if he keep that same energy.
-
Twenty seven verses later, Peter said, man.
-
I do not know what you were talking about, And
-
immediately while he was speaking, the rooster crowed.
-
At that moment, the Lord turned and looked at Peter.
-
Suddenly, the Lord's words flashed through Peter's mind before the
-
rooster crows, tomorrow morning, you will deny me three times
-
that you even know who I am.
-
And Peter left the courtyard weeping bitterly.
-
The title of my sermon, if you're taking notes, write
-
this down.
-
What if I'm an impostor? What if I'm an impostor?
-
Lord, we pray for the next few moments that you
-
would guide us, that you would help us to see
-
who you are and who we really are. So in Jesus,
-
then we pray, and everybody said, amen. I don't know
-
if you've heard this term imposter syndrome. Anybody heard us
-
raise the hands? You know, Okay, this is a term
-
that many of us are familiar with, and it's this
-
idea that I don't necessarily belong here. I feel like
-
I don't fit. I feel like I'm not supposed.
-
To be in this room. You've ever been in a
-
room you felt like you ain't supposed to be in?
-
Like you just looking around like this happened all the
-
time with me being friends and working with and all
-
the different hats of Pastor Michael. Y'all know, Pastor Michael
-
is one of the most amazing people in the world,
-
and he'd just be up in rooms that's like, how
-
in the world are we in here?
-
I can tell you how many times he's like, come on, Charlie,
-
we rolling and I'm like, where are we going. He's like,
-
just come on.
-
I'm like all right, bet, And we could be going
-
to Quick Trip, or we could end up.
-
In the White House on a Tuesday.
-
I don't even know how people we be in there,
-
and I'll be looking around sometimes, like there was.
-
One I'll never forget. We went to.
-
A record label talking about music and TC worship. It
-
was a couple years ago, and we're in there and
-
I felt like it was a scene out of a movie.
-
Pastor Mike is all these people in this massive conference room.
-
Pastor Mike's like, give me.
-
The OX, and they give him the chord and he's
-
just blaring all the songs that are out now before
-
they are all out.
-
And I'm just in there looking.
-
Around like, yeah, you know, just music stuff, sh whatever.
-
And so they're all like looking at me like I
-
don't know what they thought I did. But I just
-
I had a pair of sunglasses and kept him on
-
the whole time, just to stay mysterious. They didn't know
-
what I did.
-
He's like, that's right, we'll take a million dollars. I
-
don't know. I'm just saying random things.
-
But if prossor syndrome tells you, I'm not supposed to
-
be here. I shouldn't be doing this, I shouldn't be
-
at this place. And today I want to take a
-
moment to talk about what I believe is stopping a
-
significant amount of believers from being who God has called
-
you to be, from believing that you're chosen, from believing
-
that your life has value, from believing that you are
-
the one.
-
It is very hard to believe.
-
That God will do the impossible in your life if
-
you live your whole life thinking you're an impostor trying
-
to talk God out of the choice he made. Oh see,
-
we don't realize that. That's what imposter syndrome is. Is
-
the God of the universe looks at all of time.
-
I'm not gonna preach my time thing because you know,
-
send the whole side.
-
But he stands outside of time, looks.
-
At time, creates, time, chooses you, knowing the perfect plan,
-
knowing who you are, knowing what you've been through. He says,
-
I've chosen you, I've called you, this is your moment.
-
And everybody's like, yeah, but you know, I don't know.
-
And here's what I want to first start off. The
-
first part of this sermon is going to be very
-
graceful and understand it because I get it.
-
I felt like that at times, like I don't know
-
why I'm here, I don't know how I'm supposed to
-
be here. Some of the pressure that the deepest pressure
-
I've went.
-
Through in my life is feeling like I am not
-
supposed to be up here. But here's what I have
-
realized about imposter syndrome. I need you write this down.
-
This is like my opening point the whole sermon. At
-
one point, write this down.
-
Impostor syndrome is fear's attempt to rob you of the
-
grace that picked you, positioned you, and empowers you. Impostor
-
syndrome is fear's attempt to rob you of the grace
-
that chose you. Here's the truth. If we're gonna talk
-
about feeling like you don't belong, let's just keep it
-
a bill.
-
You don't see anybody shouting on that. That's like, wait,
-
what do you mean?
-
No, if we want to talk about it, we cannot
-
address this issue and embrace the grace of god fully.
-
Imposter syndrome says man, I don't deserve this, and your
-
life will say, yeah, you're probably right, but grace steps
-
in and says, yes, I know you don't deserve it,
-
but I am God. I covered all your sins. I
-
died for that.
-
I chose you.
-
Imposter syndrome keeps you in a place where you are
-
compared yourself and feeling like I should be further or
-
I don't know if I have what it takes, so
-
I don't know how long I'll keep the job, or
-
what if.
-
I don't have anything to say? And I hear you,
-
I hear you, I hear you.
-
My only problem is, in order to believe and embrace
-
this idea of imposter.
-
Syndrome, you have to ignore a lot of details of
-
your life. So people want to be honest with you about.
-
This, But in order to embrace imposter syndrome, you have
-
to ignore what.
-
Is really true about your life.
-
Because there's part of you that looks at your life
-
and you feel like imposter syndrome is I can't do it,
-
I'm not good enough. Then there's other details in your
-
life that tell us, yeah, they did hire you, and
-
there was a bunch of other people who interviewed as.
-
Well, and they didn't hire them. But we ignore that fact.
-
We ignore the fact that for so long you struggled
-
and couldn't get through in that area. Then all of
-
a sudden, randomly it worked out, and now you are here,
-
exactly where you've always.
-
Wanted to be.
-
We ignore the fact that, yeah, there were a lot
-
of people who went through your school, but for some reason,
-
you made it through with specific education and you got
-
into that college and God made um miraculous. We skip
-
over all the stuff God had to do to get
-
you there, just to focus on the one detail that
-
now that you're there, all of a sudden, you not qualified.
-
All of a sudden, it was some accident, all of
-
a sudden, We don't trust God anymore.
-
How, We gonna pray prayers for God to.
-
Answer, then to answer and be like, hey, I don't
-
know if you made the right choice.
-
That don't make no sense.
-
We would legitimate, like God, if you just give me
-
this job, I promise I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna
-
give it everything I got.
-
Then you get the job and they're like, all.
-
Right, we're gonna have you do a presentation and you're like, oh,
-
I don't know if I could.
-
Be doing presentations like that.
-
You spend all your energy believe in and praying and
-
asking God to do something with your life, only for
-
him to say absolutely, let's go, and then you to
-
spend the rest of your life trying to talk him
-
out of what he chose.
-
Talk him out of that.
-
You know, you were gifted but not gifted enough. You
-
were called but not called enough. You know I should
-
be here, but not all the way. And there's other
-
people who are more qualified, there's other people who might
-
be And the truth is, yeah, maybe maybe there is.
-
But how much time are we going.
-
To waste arguing with God about what he decided?
-
How much time are we gonna spend?
-
And let's just be honest, It's like, yeah, I'm go'
-
probably spend the next two or three years wasting time
-
arguing with God on whether or not it should start
-
the business. And then I'll start the business. And then
-
by the time I start the business, the economic system
-
will be completely backwards and it'll be opposite than what
-
it was now, because right now it's prime for me
-
to start the business. But you know, there's just a
-
lot of hindrances and a lot of stuff. So I'm
-
gonna wait three years, not knowing it's gonna be completely sideways.
-
Then I go three years and the market's not good,
-
and then I blame the market and talk about, see God,
-
you wouldn't in this, and I knew you wasn't supposed
-
to do it because I'm not qualified enough. How much
-
time have you spent thinking you're not the person? How
-
much time have you spent thinking I'm not good enough?
-
How much time have you spent and thinking I can't
-
be the spouse they think I am. Let's be honest.
-
You're gonna talk about feeling like an imposter?
-
How many times as a parent do you feel like
-
when they gonna find out I don't know what I'm doing,
-
I'll be thinking that all the time.
-
And Arlow's about to find out he's seven years old.
-
I think he almost know. He'd be asking me questions.
-
He'd be trying to trap me in my own questions.
-
It's like, oh really, Dad, And it's like, okay, but
-
imposter SIGRed.
-
I want you to read this. I want to read
-
this definition to you.
-
It says this imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern in
-
which individuals doubt their accomplishments and have persistent, internalized.
-
Fear of being exposed as a fraud. Consistent it's a pattern.
-
It shows up, and we got to be honest about
-
this because there's many times in our life that we
-
spend in the moment we've prayed for, but now question
-
if we should be here. Now when I look in
-
the scriptures, if there's anybody who had an excuse to
-
feel like an impostor at times, Peter would just.
-
Be one of them.
-
Don't get in twists. There's thousands of people in the
-
Bible who felt this way. But Peter's life is such.
-
A rollercoaster, it's so interesting to me. Peter starts off,
-
he's just regular guy. He's fishing.
-
This random guy walks up and it's like, hey, why
-
don't you try to throw your.
-
Net on the other side. And he's like, hey, dog,
-
I do this.
-
I don't know who you are, but we've been doing
-
this all night. It didn't work, but if you say so,
-
I'll do it. He throws it over. Biggest catch of
-
his life. It's Jesus. Then the guy's like, hey, you
-
like that, Come with me, leave all your stuff behind.
-
We can tell Peter. It's how you know Peter and
-
the Disciples. Everybody thinks. Now you think of the Disciples,
-
they're like damn they were the best.
-
They were awesome.
-
No, you got to be at a pretty low level
-
to just abandon your life work in a moment's notice.
-
Come on, you gotta be honest about that.
-
And somebody walks me right now, it's like, hey, quit
-
your job, leave your family everything. If your life was
-
going great, you may think a little bit longer. But
-
all the disciples was like, yeah, absolutely, I ain't got
-
nothing going on.
-
I mean, I don't ever talk about that.
-
That's crazy. Jesus like, hey, leave all your stuff. You've
-
been fishing for fish. I'm gonna have you fishing for men.
-
They don't ask no questions, they don't ask what the
-
metaphor mean. They're like, are we catching people? What are
-
we doing? I don't know, but let's go with him.
-
That's legit what the Bible says. They leave everything. He's
-
a regular guy.
-
And then he progresses a little bit in his life
-
and there's this moment where Jesus talking to him and
-
he's like, hey, who are people saying that I am?
-
And all of them are like Ion, say you Elijah,
-
you know cause you're tall, you a little darker like
-
Elijah was. Some people saying that you most and some
-
people saying this, some people saying that, and he's like,
-
I know who you are, though, and Peter has this
-
revelation of who God is.
-
He says, I know you're the Christ.
-
So he goes from me in this regular God to
-
having this amazing revelation.
-
Then like two seconds later.
-
Jesus like get behind me, Satan.
-
He's like, oh, shoot, okay.
-
Sometimes I don't know about you, but sometimes that's how
-
my life feels.
-
It feels like there's moment where I totally get it
-
while I'm in worship.
-
And it feels like, oh, yes, like I heard you God,
-
I'm gonna do it.
-
It's perfect. Then there's other moments where I feel like.
-
Dang completely missed it completely, like not a little bit,
-
just like that was definitely not what God said and
-
I prayed and fasted and really thought it would and
-
it wasn't.
-
Peter his whole life is this up and down, a
-
feeling like he's called, and then there's a moment where
-
he literally steps out of a boat and walks on water.
-
I was talking to my friend about this and we
-
were talking about the scripture and it's like, you gotta
-
have some questions about who wrote this part of the
-
story with Peter, because they really hyperfixated on the fact that.
-
He felt they sound like a jealous chump.
-
Honestly to me, because if I was writing a story,
-
you wouldn't have ever.
-
The fall would have been at the very end. I'd
-
be like, yo, So here's what's happening. Where out on
-
the water, all right? And then Peter steps out. He's
-
on top of the water. Really, yes, really, he takes
-
like eight steps. Eight yes, I counted one tooth.
-
I was yelling out loud like Peter nus one. And
-
then you know at the end he fail obviously because
-
he's a human he can't walk on water. But anyways,
-
he walked on water. He walks on water, he falls
-
into the water. He then is the rebel who cuts
-
off the ear of somebody trying to take Jesus. And
-
then he says, no, I'll die for you. I'll never
-
leave you. Then a couple verses later, he's yelling at
-
a little girl talking about I don't know him. His
-
life has a lot of data in it to show.
-
Us a couple of different things.
-
And this is what I want to draw out about
-
your life. If you are not careful, you will skip
-
over massive parts of information that tell you you're important,
-
you're chosen, and you're valuable, and you're only focused on
-
the negative. If you want to, we have some data
-
to say he's an imposter. He was just a regular guy.
-
He was just a fisherman. He didn't have no training.
-
He denied Jesus, Jesus rebuked him, and he ran away
-
and completely abandoned disciples, and he had anger issues and
-
cut someone's ear off. He's clearly not chosen, clearly not called,
-
clearly doesn't.
-
Have what it takes.
-
He clearly couldn't stand in the moment of pressure. He
-
clearly is not enough. And you could do the same
-
in your life. And that's what fear has you does.
-
It only has you focusing on the three moments where
-
you didn't get it right, on the three moments where
-
you didn't have the words to say to the kids,
-
on the one relationship you didn't work out, on the
-
one time you didn't manage your running right, and you
-
will have your life go.
-
So big and become so small.
-
Because fear is trying to rob you of the grace
-
that picked you. Yeah, I know he died for you,
-
but that wasn't enough for you. I know God called you,
-
but that wasn't You needed something else. You need something more.
-
You seem to not have all the pieces everybody else has.
-
I don't know about you, but I felt that way.
-
Sometimes it feels like y'all must be playing the game
-
that I only have one controller too.
-
Sometimes I feel like how I used to do my
-
little brother.
-
I have a little brother named Chandler, and he's eight
-
years younger than me, and he'd be like, Yo, let's
-
play PlayStation. And you know, we both have a controller,
-
but one of them was plugged in and the other
-
one wasn't. And sometimes I feel like that. I feel like, Yo,
-
everybody else seems to have this together. Everybody else seems
-
to not question God. Everybody else seems to just be like, Oh.
-
Yeah, he's gonna do a miracle. It's awesome.
-
I totally believe him. I have no doubts at all.
-
I don't be feeling like that all the time. I
-
feel like, yes, Lord, I believe you can do it. Also,
-
at the same time, as many times you haven't done it,
-
So what are we gonna do? If you're not careful,
-
you will skip over all the parts of your life
-
that prove that you're chosen.
-
Peter, there are parts of the life where he.
-
Was he was the reckless one, he was the wild one,
-
and he's also the only human ever to walk on water.
-
So you can focus on the fact that he fail
-
or the fact that he stepped out the boat. The
-
same is truth for your life.
-
We could talk about the fact that you fail or
-
the fact that you tried. We could talk about the
-
fact that maybe you don't have the answers, but the
-
truth is you stuck with it. Talk about the fact
-
that maybe you did have a hard time in school
-
and you didn't make it all the way through. Or
-
we could talk about the fact that you were the
-
first one in your family to ever get an acceptance letter.
-
We could talk about both of them if you want to,
-
but you cannot.
-
You cannot skip over massive parts of information of the
-
grace of God in your life to only believe this
-
small truth and this small world.
-
Imposter syndrome has you stuck feeling like.
-
Man, I'm not the person, I'm not the one, I'm
-
not the And here's the truth about it. You have
-
to spend so much time thinking about you in order
-
to embrace this idea. So the anyway it works, just
-
in case you were wondering, that's how any trap that
-
the enemy tries to.
-
Get you in your mind is.
-
You just have to focus on you for a very
-
long time, and that's the way you get stuck in it.
-
That's the way imposter syndrome works. You have to focus
-
so hard on what you're not good at.
-
For this to work.
-
You have to focus so hard on the little part
-
of you that you don't like.
-
You have to focus so much.
-
The parts that you've missed on the times that you
-
failed in order.
-
For this to work.
-
I want to think about imposter syndrome. There have been
-
many times in my life where I felt like I
-
didn't know which way I was supposed to go or
-
how I ended up in a space. But I was
-
thinking of this story, and here's kind of my relationship
-
to this topic. This is where the sermon's gonna change
-
a little bit from like I get it, I understand,
-
And now we're kind of moving past that point. Just
-
in case I can start yelling at you in a second.
-
You know what happened. I grew up playing basketball.
-
And I don't play anymore because I'm just not as
-
good man. I don't like doing things i'm not good at,
-
that's the truth. But I grew up playing basketball, and
-
there's always been this moment where I just part of
-
the probably ninety percent. As I got older, it really
-
changed this. But most of basketball, for me, the enjoyment
-
was just talking trash. That's really the most fun you're having.
-
If you're just playing and like shooting and scoring and winning,
-
you're only experiencing like six percent of the fun that's
-
to be had in playing a sport. The other ninety
-
four percent is telling people how you're gonna do it,
-
when you're gonna do it, and how they will feel
-
once you have done it. It's very dangerous. But I
-
remember I was in the argue one time with one
-
of my friends and we're going back and forth and
-
our team is losing, but of course I'm still talking
-
trash because I have dignity, and so I'm going back
-
and forth arguing, and pretty much.
-
It gets that a point where they're like, you're losing,
-
and I was like, that.
-
Doesn't matter, you can't guard me. They're like, no, you're
-
down by twenty. Yeah, and you've never scored in your life. No,
-
but you just lost the ball. I didn't want the
-
ball because I've had so much fun embarrassing you that
-
I thought i'd give someone else a chance, because your
-
life is not gonna keep going well if you keep
-
trying to do this.
-
This is what I be saying. Alabastmam. They're like, I
-
cannot believe you would say that. Okay, uh, I don't
-
feel any type way about that. This is part of
-
the fun.
-
But pretty much I got to a point where I
-
stopped focusing on this thing and I was just pretty
-
much like, yeah, okay, so what I want to give
-
you a trick. When the enemy tries to suggest to
-
you that you're not good enough, that you're not called enough,
-
that you don't have what it takes, you can.
-
Look at them and be like, yeah, okay, I may.
-
Not have gotten it right every single time, but you've
-
been defeated and you ain't got nothing on me. God
-
chose me. Well, I feel like you don't have what
-
it takes. Yeah, I may not have what it takes,
-
but guess what, God's with me, and I don't care
-
what you think.
-
Okay, let me give you this example. I'm gonna do
-
it this way, seem we're gonna illustrate this.
-
I wanna give you what happens with imposter syndrome. Can
-
you put that on the screen. Imposter syndrome has like
-
a language and a narrative and a lot of things
-
that are said before we jump into this. You can
-
throw it up on the screen. Here's what you need
-
to write down on your nose. The only antidote to
-
imposter syndrome is honesty. The only antidote to imposter syndrome
-
is honest.
-
You gotta be.
-
Honest about everything. So imposters says a lot of things.
-
Here's some of the things imposter syndrome says. And if
-
you've ever felt anything any of these things, this will
-
be good. It says I'll never be good enough. Anybody
-
ever felt like you ain't never gonna be good enough?
-
Come on, just be honest, raise your hand like it
-
don't matter what I do. I'm just not going to
-
get it. It says I'm not qualified. Anybody ever felt
-
like you ain't qualified?
-
Anybody? Come on, I wrote a book and barely made
-
it through English class. I was feeling unqualified.
-
They'll regret choosing me. I don't belong in this room.
-
I don't deserve this. I have no idea what I'm doing.
-
The first question I would ask this stuff, it says, who,
-
Because here's what I've learned about imposter syndrome. The only
-
reason you feel like an impostor is because there is
-
some manufactured pressure of some imaginary picture you made up
-
of where you're.
-
Supposed to be, of how you're supposed to be feeling
-
doing what you're doing right now. This is the case
-
for me. It feels like I don't.
-
Know if this is right because I made up an
-
idea of how I'm supposed to feel. Imposter syndrome says
-
all of these things.
-
But we're gonna talk about the truth today.
-
I'm gonna give you seven reasons to counteract all of
-
these confessions. All right, everybody write them down. Number one,
-
go ahead, put it up on the screen. Number one
-
is this God chose me.
-
Okay, let's see number two. I'm not qualified. God chose me.
-
They're gonna regret choosing me. Oh gosh, what's the truth?
-
God chose me. I don't belong in this room. Well,
-
guess what, I definitely don't belong in this room. But
-
for some reason, God moved other people out of the way,
-
and I don't know how I made it in this room.
-
I don't know how I'm up on the stage. But
-
the one thing I do know is God chose me.
-
I don't deserve this. Yeah, you're right, I don't deserve
-
it because I'm imperfect, I'm inconsistent, I'm broken. I got
-
a lot of stuff I'm still working through. But guess
-
what God chose me. I have no idea what I'm doing.
-
You are absolutely correct. I've never raised four kids before,
-
I've never written a book before, I've never been on
-
this stage and lift this day. But guess what God
-
chose me? Here is the question.
-
You do not need any more information.
-
If that is true, there's no more convincing. You don't
-
need to go anything. Either this is true or it's not.
-
Either God knew all of this. Well, I'm not gonna
-
be good enough.
-
Absolutely yes, that yes, right now.
-
You do not have the skill set to do what
-
God has called.
-
You to do.
-
That is we all know that, And God chose you.
-
So which one are you gonna build your life on?
-
Which one are you gonna raise your kids? Out of
-
which one is gonna determine if you write the music
-
or not which one is gonna determine if you actually.
-
Do what he asked you to do.
-
Is it gonna be the small truth and the one
-
experience you had in seventh grade? Or is it gonna
-
be the fact that God chose you.
-
Which one's gonna win? Which one's gonna win.
-
And here's the thing, I'm not trying to overlook your
-
real situation, because you could put anything in this sentence
-
and on this column that would be an honest truth
-
of why you feel like you can't do it. And
-
I'm not saying that you don't have valid reasons. What
-
I'm saying is there's a way out if you want it.
-
If you don't want it, that's fine. You can keep that.
-
You can stay right there.
-
You can stay focused on who you didn't have and
-
who wasn't there for you. I get it, I've experienced it.
-
The only problem is it doesn't help you move forward.
-
It helps you get pity. It helps you people feel
-
good for It helps you stay and have an excuse
-
to never grow. It helps you feel like you can
-
blame everything on everybody else and never take ownership.
-
And I'm not mad at you.
-
I'm just saying there's a way out if you want it.
-
There's a way out if you want it.
-
I understand your parents were not there as they have been.
-
I get it. I hear you, and I am sorry.
-
That's over here, and you have an opportunity right now
-
to decide who you're gonna be. You have an opportunity
-
to be what you never saw. You have an opportunity
-
to embrace a new life and to let them go,
-
or you can live your whole life mad at.
-
Them even though they're not here. This is real, I
-
get it, I hear you.
-
The only problem is there are people who are waiting
-
for you over here. They're waiting for you to say, hey,
-
I didn't have everything I needed. I wish I would
-
have been set up more. I wish I would have
-
had more information. I wish they would have taught me
-
some more stuff. But the fact is God chose me,
-
He brought me here, and I cannot waste my time
-
wishing for things.
-
I never had.
-
Some of us will have spent so much time waiting
-
for this perfect scenario where we will feel like God
-
chose us and he made the right decision.
-
Maybe that's not true for you, Maybe that's how I feel.
-
Maybe I've have felt that God chose me, and then
-
there would be this one miraculous moment where I felt
-
like what he called me. Peter has this interaction with
-
Jesus where he tells him like, you are the Christ absolutely,
-
and God says, from now on you will be called
-
Simon Peter, which is you are a rock and on
-
this rock I will build my church.
-
Here's my question, at what point did he become the rock?
-
What point you know he gets called as Simon and
-
then he has this experience where God says, you are
-
a rock and on this rock I will build my church.
-
Is he the rock when he walked on the water
-
or when he fell in? Was he a rock when
-
he had the revelation of Jesus? Was he a rock
-
when he said I'll die for you? And then did
-
God take away the rock thing because he denied him
-
and it was like, clearly you're not the rock no
-
more because you're flipping back and forth.
-
When was he the rock? At what point? Did exactly?
-
Was it the moment where he came back to Jesus
-
and they're on the beach and he's fishing and he
-
hears that voice again that says, throw your thing on
-
the other side, and he recognizes it, and the Bible
-
tells us that he had taken off his clothes and
-
shirt because he was so hot. He puts on his
-
clothes to jump in the water. He's completely out of
-
his mind, comes back to Jesus.
-
Is that the moment he's the rock?
-
Here's my question, at what moment are you waiting for
-
where you're gonna feel like what he said? There are
-
many times in our life where we hear God says you,
-
I have chosen you, I've called you, I've picked you,
-
I have a plan for you, and you are going
-
to do this, this, and this, and we say, okay,
-
I'm just waiting to feel like that person, because once
-
I feel like that person, then I'll be able to
-
be that person.
-
Let me tell you, you're gonna be waiting a long time.
-
I don't know if he felt like a rock when
-
he was standing on the water.
-
Maybe he felt more like a rock when he.
-
Sank, because that's the truth of what it feels like.
-
Sometimes it feel like, oh, this is when you kicked
-
in the rock thing, because I immediately, let.
-
Me tell you the truth, he was a rock the
-
whole time. This is what Jesus does.
-
He calls you what you cannot see right now, and
-
you are waiting to feel something outside of who you
-
are right now.
-
And Jesus knows you are a rock. You just don't
-
see it. Yet. You have the power because here's the
-
crazy thing about his life. From the man who.
-
Cuts off people's ears, rejects, Jesus runs away, abandons being
-
a disciple, He's also the first person to preach and
-
thirty thousand people get saved.
-
Same person. He was a rock the whole time. And
-
I want to encourage you. I know right now you.
-
Feel like an imposter because you don't feel like what
-
God said. The only thing I'm saying to you is
-
you don't have to wait to feel anything to be something.
-
I'm gonna say that again.
-
You don't have to sit around waiting to feel like Okay,
-
I feel like the husband supposed to be. I feel
-
like the spouse I'm supposed to be. I feel like no, no, no,
-
I'm not checking for how I feel. That is not
-
an indicator of what I'm gonna do. Imposter syndrome is
-
fear's way of trying to rob you of God's grace.
-
Listen here, here's the idea. We've already established that imposter syndrome.
-
I was gonna say it very clearly. It's honestly just
-
a waste of time. There's a bottom line of it.
-
We can spend our time focusing on the fact that
-
we feel insignificant, that we feel insecure, or we can
-
spend time saying, you know what, God has chosen me,
-
and this is the most important thing. There is an
-
imposter syndrome that does plague a group of believers that
-
I am actually very very.
-
Concerned about, and this is it.
-
The imposter syndrome that knows God chose you, that knows
-
He puts something on the inside of you, but because
-
you're afraid of what other people would think if you
-
actually showed up as who you are, you don't act
-
like He chose you. That's the real imposter syndrome to
-
be worried about. The imposter syndrome that knows you're valuable
-
but tries to downplay it for other people.
-
The imposter syndrome that knows.
-
God puts something on the inside of you, but you
-
do the whole fake, humble.
-
Thing and like, nah, yeah, actually I don't know, and.
-
You use that as an excuse to stay stuck your
-
whole life acting like God did not put something on
-
the inside of you. One of the biggest imposter syndromes
-
is to act like.
-
He did not choose you. And here's what a lie.
-
And I honestly, I really don't know why I'm thinking
-
about a babe. I was riding my bike this morning
-
trying to think of why this is a thing.
-
But I genuinely do not understand that we.
-
Get saved by this miraculous grace God. The Bible says,
-
the same power that raised Christ from the dead is
-
just given to us, placed on the inside of us.
-
We are given purpose before him.
-
Our life has.
-
Zero meaning and we're just living doing what we want.
-
God gives us this miraculous power. We have eternal life forever,
-
and then for some reason after that, we go into
-
this just like, yeah, I'm not.
-
That important, I'm not that big of a deal. I
-
don't know.
-
And for some reason in church culture, anybody who is
-
confident is cocky and prideful.
-
That's the only way we relate to in church. Somebody
-
would be like.
-
Yeah, God has called me to do this, and I'm
-
gonna do it, and I'm gonna be exactly.
-
Who he called me to be. Somebody.
-
I'll be like, okay, well, you know, have you been
-
to the Bible study yet?
-
Have you read the entire Bible? Think about this, You've
-
met people. We'll do this. People will get saved at
-
the altar.
-
They'll be crying, they'll be doing a completely different life,
-
all these different things. Then they'll come back and be like,
-
I'm starting a Bible study in my room with my friends.
-
And they're like, whoa, You're starting a Bible study. You
-
just got saved on Sunday? What are you doing?
-
Somebody you are like, yeah, absolutely, Okay, do you hold on?
-
I just caught a stutter because of how frustrated that was.
-
I don't know if you've ever heard of Paul. I
-
don't think you've ever read the bib Okay, I'm gonna
-
have to do it all right, Okay, we're gonna go
-
read Galatians. Okay, this is what the Bible said Galatians one.
-
Fifteen and once again, team, so sorry. I didn't give
-
you any of these scriptures. Before I was born.
-
God chose me, and he called me by his marvelous grace.
-
Let's go down.
-
It says When this happened, I didn't rush out to
-
consult with any humans. I didn't go to Jerusalem to
-
consult the apostles before I was there. I went straight there.
-
Then three years later I went to Jerusalem. I got
-
to know Peter a little bit. The other apostles I
-
met was James, the Lord's brother. I declare before God
-
that what I'm writing is not a lie.
-
Paul says, I'm gonna find this one scripture because it's
-
so gangster.
-
Give me a second. Here it says this. They praise
-
God because of me. Then fourteen years later I went
-
back to Jerusalem again. This time Barnabas and Titus came along.
-
I went there because God revealed to me that I
-
should go. When I was there, I met privately with
-
those who considered to be leaders of the church.
-
I share with them the message I had been preaching.
-
I wanted to make sure we were in agreement, for
-
I feared that all my efforts.
-
Had been wasted. They supported me, didn't even demand that
-
my companion.
-
Titus be circumcised, Thank God for Titus.
-
Titus was like, oh, thank you Jesus. Can you imagine.
-
Yos uh Sam gotta be circumcised or no, and they're
-
all like, uh no, he's good.
-
Listen to this said.
-
The leaders of the church had nothing to add to
-
what I was preaching.
-
Listen to this parentheses.
-
This is amazing by the way, their reputation as great
-
leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites. Instead,
-
they saw that God had given me the responsibility to
-
preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, just that he had
-
given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews. For
-
the God who worked through Peter as an apostle to
-
the Jews is the same God that worked through me
-
as an apostle to the gentiles.
-
What is he saying.
-
I did not waste fourteen years of my life trying
-
to go get checks and balances from people who didn't
-
knock me off of my donkey and call me to preach.
-
I didn't waste my time trying to make sure I
-
went to enough classes so I was equipped enough to
-
do what God had called me to do. If Jesus
-
met me on the road to Damascus and said I
-
have need of you, I got off of my stuff,
-
I went to the place, got my eyes opened, and
-
I immediately started doing what he asked me to do.
-
And the truth is, Paul would not make it in
-
a lot of discipleship programs in twenty twenty five. He
-
would have had to go to the New Believer's class,
-
and then he would had to come to Bible study
-
for eighteen weeks, and then we would have to make
-
sure that he's not looking at pornography, because if you
-
look once, God cancels your calling for at least ten
-
years until you're affirmed again.
-
That's how we think about it.
-
Now. Okay, now we all acting weird, looking at me
-
crazy because I got a crop shirt on and it
-
says ace and I'm speaking the truth.
-
Okay, this is what we do. How crazy is that.
-
God calls people, then we as humans make it all
-
right to choose if they're ready or not.
-
I have no time for you to decide about what
-
God called me to do. You can spend time over there.
-
Wondering if I'm okay, if I got enough to do.
-
What it takes. You stay over there. But as for
-
me and my house.
-
I'm not wasting no time worried about you, Worried if
-
I'm cold enough, Worried if I'm good enough.
-
Maybe the truth is, I know I'm not good enough.
-
I know I don't have what it takes. I know
-
he chooses the.
-
Most broken and messed up people to do his best work.
-
I would only feel.
-
Like an impostor if I didn't know how broken I was.
-
But don't get it twisted. I know me. I know
-
I'm not qualified. I know I shouldn't be up here.
-
I know God could have chose anybody else, but guess what,
-
he didn't choose anybody else.
-
He chose me.
-
So I'm gonna stop wasting time in useless arguments that
-
land nowhere. I'm not mad at getting research and going
-
to school and learning more information. But if you think
-
you gonna get more degrees and all of a sudden
-
you not gonna feel like you still don't have what
-
it takes.
-
It's just not true. You're still gonna have to decide.
-
I believe God chose me, And until you deal with that,
-
it doesn't matter who affirms you.
-
It don't matter how many degrees you get, it don't
-
matter how.
-
Much success you have, because you will always feel like
-
I'm just.
-
Not like them.
-
I just don't have what they have, and I just
-
haven't done what they've done, and I'm.
-
Just that is a waste of your time, Such a
-
waste of time when you could just decide what, Yeah, I.
-
Don't have the answers. I don't know how to do this.
-
I've never done it before. Nobody my family's ever done
-
it before.
-
Nobody at all has ever done this before.
-
And who cares?
-
That might be one of the most spiritual things you
-
could say to yourself.
-
What if you don't do it? Who cares? I don't.
-
I don't have time to care about that.
-
It's a waste of my time to care if I'm
-
going to what if the sermon is bad? What if
-
it's bad, Let's go down the road. I be thinking
-
that something. I'll be standing over there be.
-
Like, good God, what if this is bad.
-
I'll be thinking of that still sometimes and it's like,
-
what if it's bad.
-
What happens?
-
Well, then everybody in a room falls away from Christ
-
because they were waiting on you to decide if they
-
were gonna no, that's not true. If it's bad, all
-
the church Mama's over here are gonna be like that
-
was the best sermon I ever heard in my life.
-
Swedenh you are so good, You are so annointed. My
-
wife gonna tell me is good. Carl gonna tell me
-
on Tuesday, Hey, brother, you want to come over and
-
talk about that. And now I'm gonna get better. And
-
that's gonna be it. And now I'll get back from here.
-
Next Sunday I'm gonna preach again.
-
That's it. Where does it show up in your life?
-
Where does that conversation go in your mind? Because for
-
many of us, what it does is it keeps us
-
stuck at start or what if it's bad?
-
Or what if they don't like it? And what if
-
they don't like it so much that they never say
-
anything to me again? And what if they leave me?
-
Okay, let me just stay where I am so nothing changes.
-
Let me just never take the risks so that way
-
I know I won't fall. Some of y'all will not
-
be y'all, y'all be I'm gonna be honest with you.
-
I've been married with my wife for ten years now,
-
and I do not understand sometimes talking to single people,
-
I don't understand.
-
I'll be trying to be pastoral.
-
I be trying to be like helping them out, and
-
some of them the first place we start is like, hey,
-
I know.
-
You think you a thousand on the hot meter, but
-
you may want to drop your gears.
-
Into like a low two just to calibrate for where
-
you are.
-
That's the first issue of single this know yourself.
-
I'm just saying, I got some people that are like, yeah,
-
I'm waiting on Beyonce and Kiddle Jenny to pull up,
-
And it's like, you might want to look across the
-
aisle at QT and just let God do something, because
-
that is a grave level of self awareness that you lack.
-
God you're saying, Man, you gotta know where you are.
-
It's crazy. I love you. It's not personal, it's just
-
the facts. But one of the conversations I have with people.
-
Is so worried about what could happen if you with somebody.
-
This has been happening when since I was a youth pastor.
-
I'm being a youth pastor and talking to people and
-
people be like, well, what happens if I get with
-
them and they're not write one? Like, well, first of all,
-
you said, Tea, I can almost guarantee you they're not
-
the one. I will bet my right leg that Sam
-
is not the one for you. But the only way
-
to protect yourself from that disappointment is to never play.
-
The only way to protect yourself from guaranteeing your heart
-
will never be broken is to never love anyone. The
-
only way to promise yourself that you will never feel
-
abandonment in a friendship is to never have any friends.
-
The only way to guarantee you never feel the sting
-
of failure in front of people who you told your
-
idea to is to never do your idea. And the
-
question is which life do you want? Do you want
-
a life where you have to risk it in front
-
of people? Because if Peter never steps out the boat,
-
we don't get the story about him falling and he
-
never has to deal with that.
-
But we also never get the picture of what is possible.
-
And there are a lot of people who are hedging
-
a lot of their bets because they just don't want
-
the risk of what could happen.
-
I'm not mad at you, I get it, but there's
-
a lot you're leaving on the table. Peter, he is
-
a rock.
-
And for my three points today, it's very profound, very prophetic.
-
Three points title is how to Become a Rock.
-
It was a joke. It wasn't prophetic, It was just
-
a joke.
-
Okay, Peter is a rock, He is a foundation. He
-
is someone that God chose and he lives his life
-
as such.
-
I want to give you three points a day of how.
-
Do we become somebody who is a rock, who sees
-
and becomes who God has calls to be. I nerded
-
out a little bit on this and I started to
-
be doing a research.
-
I literally just straight up ask chat Gpt, how does
-
a rock become a rock?
-
It's a pretty deep question, and this is crazy, I
-
literally thought, and I started digging and doing all types
-
of research and three things on how a.
-
Rock becomes a rock and how you go become a rock.
-
The first thing you need for a rock to become
-
a rock is fire. Don't be mad at me. You
-
can take this up with chat Gibt if you will.
-
First thing a rock needs is fire. It needs heat.
-
It needs to be purified.
-
It needs to go through something to see what it's
-
really made of. It needs to have a moment where
-
a question what's on the inside of it. The only
-
way it becomes something that is sturdy enough for other
-
things to be anchored to is to find.
-
Out it is tried and it is true. The truth
-
is if you want to.
-
Live outside of imposter syndrome and know who you are.
-
You want to become a rock in your identity.
-
You want to not be shaken every time someone looks
-
at you sideways. You want to not be concerned with
-
the outcome of other people and run your race. The
-
first thing you gonna need is you don't have to
-
go through some fire. You ain't gonna find out who
-
you are ntil you go through some fire. You're not
-
gonna know exactly what you're made of until you go
-
through some fire. You're not gonna be able to stand
-
in adversity in front of your family unless you've been
-
through some fire. And we cannot ask to be made
-
into something with escaping the process.
-
You're gonna have to go through some fire.
-
And if anybody sold to you that Jesus is the
-
one that gets you out of fire, so you ain't
-
never gotta go in, it not true, not how it
-
works at all. Going and following Jesus is almost a
-
guarantee you gonna go through the fire. Because here's the deal.
-
You don't have to be worried about being attacked when
-
you're not in the game. You don't have to worry
-
about being hit in football standing on the sidelines. The
-
only time you have to be worried is when you
-
decide to get in the game. And the same is
-
true about your life. Instead of seeing the fire as
-
discouragement that maybe you're not going the right way and
-
maybe this was wrong, and maybe God's not with me,
-
and maybe I made it mistake. Maybe God's trying to
-
show you who you really are. Maybe he's trying to
-
show you that there's some things in you that don't
-
need to be on the inside of you.
-
What does fire look like. It looked like tension in
-
your relationships.
-
Come on, I'm making this practical, not like the spiritual
-
fire where you're like, God, burn me up. Now I'm
-
talking about you've been fighting with your spouse for two months.
-
That's the type of fire I'm talking about, because the
-
only way you see you sometimes is when you're looking
-
in that mirror.
-
That you're married. Sometimes fire is your kids acting crazy.
-
Now this is the one that begetting me.
-
I can't even lie because I be thinking like I'm
-
calm and peaceful and we got all these confessions.
-
But my wife will tell you there is a.
-
Side of me where I will lose my mind, and
-
I just start making promises that ain't trust.
-
Like I will take everything and return it. I'll be
-
saying I say that four times week to my kids.
-
Clean up your room? Why? Whoa wah? Why?
-
Why?
-
Why? Why wouldn't do nothing? Clean up your room? Okay, dad,
-
were gonna clean up ro come it's not clear why? Okay,
-
get put it in trash bags. Go get trash bags
-
or doing everything's going to the good will. They don't
-
even know what the good will is.
-
I'm like, you just pack it up, Jade, yes, the
-
doll pack it up, gone, somebody else needs it.
-
You don't want to be grateful. We ain't having nothing.
-
You're gonna be broke the rest of your life. It's like, what, man?
-
What is that? That is a real thing for me?
-
I realize how impatient and quick to anger I am
-
when I'm talking to a four year old who does
-
not care what I'm asking them to do, and I
-
think the issue is them. And then halfway through me yelling,
-
the Holy Spirit's.
-
Like, wow, so this is how you get down? Huh?
-
And I'm like, you know what, Jade, I'll be.
-
Right back, But you need something in your life to
-
show you. Hey, there are still parts of you that
-
need to be worked on. This is why you gotta
-
have friends in your life. And you can't abandon every
-
friendship when they get on your nerves because maybe it's
-
not them, maybe it's you.
-
All my friends is just talk about me. You mean.
-
They try to give you feedback, They try to tell you, hey,
-
you're rude. You try to change me. Yes, we are
-
trying to change you.
-
We are you are mean, and we want you to change.
-
That's fire, that's friction, but it's a good thing and
-
mean fire. The next thing you need is pressure. Pressure.
-
I've had to change and adjust my relationship to pressure.
-
Because here's a beautiful thing.
-
When you go through the fire, you get confirmation of
-
what you're made of, so you know you can handle
-
the pressure. You can't skip this step. You gotta go
-
through the fire first because the fire shows you what's
-
really on the inside of you, and the fire purifies
-
and solidifies what God.
-
Has given you.
-
That way, when you get in the pressure, you don't
-
have to be questioning who you are. I'm trying to
-
tell you something I have lived out and am living out.
-
You go through the fire to figure out who you are,
-
so that.
-
When you get under pressure, you don't wonder about who
-
you are. I do be asking how we're gonna make it,
-
though you know what I'm saying, that's two different questions,
-
who am I versus how we gonna make it? But
-
I'm not questioning who I am. This is how people
-
get jobs and you don't know who you are and
-
you start acting like a different person trying to get
-
a promotion because you didn't go through the fire to
-
figure out who you were and decide who you were
-
gonna be. So then you got under some pressure, and
-
some people you liked liked you, and some people who
-
have some money gave you an opportunity, and you start
-
changing up who you are under pressure. Don't switch up
-
under pressure. The pressure is trying to build something in you.
-
It's trying to solidify something in you. And here's the
-
beautiful thing about pressure. Some of us will never become
-
the version of ourselfs we've always wanted to.
-
Be without pressure.
-
I didn't become the man I am today without the
-
pressure of having an entire family.
-
The pressure it.
-
Is to say, Okay, I'm responsible for my wife and
-
I'm responsible for these three for kids. That pressure brought
-
something out of me. The pressure of people depinding, the
-
pressure of stepping up.
-
And I'm not talking about a brad pressure. I'm talking
-
about good pressure.
-
Now, pressure that you manufacture, not pressure that's like, oh.
-
What are they gonna do?
-
The pressure of Okay, there's a real responsibility I have.
-
Responsibility is good for you. Let me say that. I'm
-
almost said, I almost just became an old person. I
-
wonst said young people.
-
That was like a I am a young person, but
-
I'm talking to younger than me.
-
Responsibility is good.
-
It's a good thing to have people depending on what
-
you say. It's a good thing to have people saying, hey,
-
I need a leader, and this person's gonna step It's
-
a good thing to have that pressure because that pressure
-
brings something out of you. Fire pressure, thing that happens
-
to a rock before it comes from a rock.
-
I'm not lying.
-
As it transforms, metamorphic rock is what it would be.
-
Marble is this way fire pressure.
-
And then scientists will tell you it's almost like all
-
of a sudden, it's intense fire, intense pressure. But there's
-
this gap in the process of rock formations where they.
-
Can't actually pinpoint.
-
Exactly where and when it happens, they don't know what
-
moment it was. They don't know what exactly the temperature is,
-
they don't know exactly the pounds of pressure.
-
But there's this.
-
Moment where the rock goes from something that was shaky
-
and unstable and it starts to form into something else.
-
And I need you to know, friend, your life is
-
the same way. I know you feel like you're in
-
fire and.
-
It's taken some things, and it's burned up some things,
-
and it's hurt you in some ways. I know you
-
feel like you're under pressure.
-
But I promise you there is a transformation. You're not
-
gonna be able to pinpoint it. You're not gonna be
-
able to exactly know where it is. You're not gonna
-
know exactly what moment is. But I promise you there
-
will be a moment where you will look up and
-
look around in.
-
Your life and you'll say, when did all this peace
-
get here? I feel that so strongly.
-
There are some of you You've been under so much
-
fire and so much pressure. But I promise you gonna
-
look up one day and say, who when did all
-
this joy show up?
-
Some of you? You?
-
And here's the thing, why you have to throw imposter
-
syndrome out the window is because it'll keep you from
-
ever experiencing that part of your story. It'll keep you
-
from realizing you've been a rock the whole time. It'll
-
keep you from being an example people need. It'll keep
-
you stuck in comparing yourself the people you were never
-
supposed to be Like.
-
This sermon isn't the truth is.
-
This Sermon's gonna take some responsibility from you. It's gonna
-
be a fight, It's gonna be work. Any transformation is work,
-
Any change is work. But today I want to close
-
this sermon praying for something supernatural. You know, there's two
-
ways you can find something out.
-
You can find out through information or you can find
-
out through revelation.
-
Practical example, I fell in love with my wife just
-
like in a random moment.
-
We stayed in love with.
-
A lot of work and a lot of time and
-
a lot of effort. But I will never forget when
-
I saw Abby Rose Henry walk around the corner. I'd
-
already creeped her on Instagram and found her Instagram, and it.
-
Tried to act like I didn't know her, but I
-
remember when I saw her, and then I remember us
-
going to.
-
Get food, and it was somewhere between the tie food.
-
And driving to the coffee shop after.
-
I had known her for like two weeks where I thought,
-
I think I.
-
Love that girl. It was an instant. It wasn't some
-
random time.
-
Then there are other people that your journey of some
-
people I have, some of our friends.
-
That were like, yeah, I didn't really like him at first,
-
which I was like, if my spouse was saying that,
-
I would be tore up. But my friend's really strong,
-
that's great.
-
But they said it was over really time, and the
-
more time I spent with them and the more I
-
was around them, something. Over time there was this moment
-
where I realized, Man, this is my person. There are
-
two ways to find out who you are. Some of you,
-
you're gonna have to go through the fire. You've been
-
through the pressure, and you've experienced the transformation.
-
But there are some of you.
-
I am praying, and I'm gonna pray today that you
-
wouldn't have to spend no more time trying.
-
To question who you are.
-
You wouldn't have to spend time trying to wrestle. Today,
-
we are genuinely going to pray that God would give
-
you a revelation of your identity that not another day
-
would you question who you are? And if you're enough,
-
you're gonna have questions on how it's gonna work, on
-
what God's gonna do, on what the path is gonna be,
-
But not for another day in your life.
-
Are you gonna sit here trying to wake up thinking
-
I don't know if I have what it takes. I
-
don't know if I can be what they want me
-
to be. Who cares?
-
God has chosen you and He's called you for this moment.
-
Here's what we're gonna do.
-
If you genuine and this is probably gonna be fifty
-
million people, but it's okay.
-
I'm gonna ask every person.
-
Who you need a genuine revelation of who you are? Like,
-
identity and who you are is something you struggle with.
-
Now here's the thing. I'm gonna count the three. I'm
-
gonna ask you to stand up.
-
If this is you, Before you stand up, you are
-
responsible for what happens when you stand up.
-
And I learned this being a youth pastor. You do
-
author calls and every.
-
Six thousand kids be like, yeah, immediately I'm to the altar.
-
I need to do it because you see other people
-
standing up and you feel like you need to stand up.
-
Only stand up if you're ready to take the responsibility
-
of finding out who you are, because once you find
-
out who you are, you can't act like you're not
-
that person. Once you find out God give you that idea, you're.
-
Not responsible to go back and start working on it.
-
Once you find out that God did call you to
-
raise those parents, you're gonna have to go back and
-
apologize to him and say, hey, Dad has to reintroduce
-
himself as the new father that I am. And so
-
this stuff I used to let you do because I
-
was trying to get you to like me, because me.
-
And your mama is going through it.
-
I'm not gonna do that no more because I'm responsible
-
for you and I gotta raise you to be a
-
man and woman of God.
-
And so you're gonna be responsible for what happens with you.
-
Stand up. But if you.
-
Say I need a revelation of who I am, I've
-
been fighting. If I'm called, I've been fighting. If I'm enough,
-
I've been fighting imposter syndrome.
-
I'm gonna countter three. I'm gonna ask you to stand
-
up in the room and online. And this is going
-
to be a powerful moment for you.
-
I promise it's not gonna fix everything, but it is
-
gonna change something.
-
One two three.
-
Right now, all of this room your identity today. You
-
need a revelation of your identity. Stand up, everybody stays standing.
-
I want to say, I'm proud of you, that same.
-
Feeling right there. I want you to register something.
-
The same courage it took for you to stand up
-
wondering about what your friend was gonna think next to you,
-
who didn't stood up but should have stood up. That's
-
the same courage that it's gonna take every single morning when
-
you get out of bed.
-
Would you buy your heads and close your eyes?
-
God, right now, I pray supernaturally that you would reveal
-
who you are and who they are in this moment,
-
show them the infinite value they have because of who
-
you are. I pray against old wounds right now that
-
have kept people stuck. Words they never got from their
-
mom and dad, words they never got from someone in
-
their life.
-
Lord Jesus, I pray you would empower.
-
Them to release it right now, to release the hurt,
-
to release the pain, to release the fear, to release
-
that feeling of being overlooked and undervalue. God, I pray
-
it is broken, and in this moment, I pray for
-
a revelation of identity that they would know, without a
-
shadow of a doubt, that you have chosen them.
-
They would know, without a shadow of a doubt that
-
you are with them, that there's not a situation in.
-
Their life that you have not called them to and
-
prepared them for. If you just stood up, you can
-
go ahead and take a seat for just a moment.
-
Every head bow, every eye closed.
-
Maybe you're in this room and you've never accepted Jesus
-
as your Lord and savior.
-
I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm a level with you.
-
You're gonna spend a lot of your life trying to
-
figure out who you are unless you find someone who
-
can tell you.
-
Jesus is the only person that can show you who
-
you really are. Money tries to tell you, it can
-
show you.
-
People feel like they can show.
-
You, But the truth is, Jesus is the only person
-
who can tell you the infinite value that you have.
-
And if you're in this room and you've never accepted
-
Jesus as your Lord and savior, what does that mean.
-
It means you give up trying to run your own life.
-
That's the short of it. The beautiful story is is
-
that Jesus came to this earth, he lived a beautiful,
-
perfect life, and he died on a cross for our sin.
-
What is sin? Sin is us making mistakes.
-
It's us doing things we don't want to do, being
-
the person we don't want to be, and that's sin.
-
It separates us from God. But when Jesus died, that
-
drew us close to God. And when you accept Jesus,
-
you get that new life. If you've been looking for
-
a new start, looking for a fresh start, you want
-
to become somebody different, I'm a counter three.
-
I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand. Every head bout,
-
every eye close.
-
If you want to accept Jesus, this is the moment
-
for you. Don't worry about anything else. You've been worried
-
about how you're gonna make it. You've been some of
-
you are under so much pressure and you don't have
-
the answer. And this is the moment that changes everything.
-
If you want to accept Jesus as your Lord and savior,
-
I'm gonna counter three and you're gonna raise your hand boldly, one.
-
He loves you too. Today is the day of salvation.
-
Three lifts your hand right now, all over this room
-
and online you want to accept Jesus, I see you
-
right here, both fam so proud of you, so proud
-
of you.
-
Over here, I got you on the top, so proud
-
of you. I see you since I'm so proud of you.
-
But everybody repeat this prayer out loud after me say,
-
Dear God, I admit I've made mistakes, Save me, change me,
-
make me new, and.
-
Jesus name I pray. Amen.
-
Can we give it up for everybody who just prayed
-
that prayer of salvation giving their life to Jesus.
-
I'm so proud of you. Hey, listen, we are about
-
to close out our service.
-
But if you text, if you just got saved today.
-
You prayed that prayer.
-
Once you text the word save to the number that
-
comes up on the screen, and if you're online, in
-
just a moment, we're gonna jump online and pray over
-
your prayer request.
-
But I'm so grateful for everybody who came to church