Confidence Without Conceit, Part C | Day 16 of 21 Days of Action

Well, praise the Lord, and grace and peace be multiplied to you today from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Welcome to day 16 of 21 days of fasting and prayer, 21 days of action. Listen, we're fasting for fire. Glory to God! We're fasting that we may seek God better, share God better, and serve God better. And I'm telling you, I have been tremendously blessed, guys, over these last 16 days. 5 o'clock prayer has been awesome. It was awesome again, uh, on this morning. We prayed about renewing the mind. And listen, if you miss this morning's time of prayer, I want to encourage you to make sure you go back and listen and pray with us, because the renewed mind— glory to the name of God— is very important to your success. And we found it out this morning, to your plans being established, to you being able to soar in the things that pertain to God. So I want to welcome you here. If you're here right now, you're live or by replay, do me a kind favor and be nice and share this. Glory to God. Uh, share it with people in the comments below, tag them, share it in inboxes, share it on your timeline. The Bible says we're blessed to be a blessing. So as you guys come in, hit that share button. Glory to the name of God. Because really, a blessing is not a blessing until you give it away. So I want to challenge you today, give it away. Make sure this blessing gets in the hands of every person. Glory to the name of God that needs to partake of it. Glory to God. Let's jump into this, man. I, um We're continuing our series on confidence. Glory to the name of God. And believe it or not, we're still in the, uh, second part on confidence without conceit. And so we, we've covered a few things, and we've talked about the dangers, uh, you know, and the commands from God concerning pride. And we've dealt with how, glory to the name of God, overestimating ourself not being eternal but being carnal, how dangerous that is. Glory to God. And how we have to literally put our confidence in the mind of God, in the word of God, in the plans of God for our life. Watch this— in his ability to help us. See, what we've discovered is confidence is the quality or assurance that you're capable, able, and acceptable to undertake a thing. Again, I'll say it again. It's the quality or assurance that you're capable, able, and acceptable to undertake a thing. And what makes you more capable, able, and acceptable than God himself being a part of what you're trying to achieve? Oh my God. So I want to challenge you, man. Grab this word, take it, eat it, use it, apply it. So today we're going to pick up where we left off yesterday. You know, we, we stopped teaching, I was just talking about, uh, just dismissing, conquering the thought process of self. And you know, as I was teaching, I said, man, people are— that's why we prayed about it this morning and walked through some more scriptures because at the end of the day, you know, it's hard for people to just grab, you know, I gotta crucify me, my way of doing things, my way of thinking, and just totally depend and accept God's way of doing it. And you know, that can be difficult, that can be very hard. But at the end of the day, I'm— trust me, I know it's hard. I, I've gone through it, and there's still areas of my mind that's been renewed there's still areas I'm crucifying my heart in and my spirit in so that I can be totally submitted. Watch this, immediately, you know, even if I'm, me personally, if I'm not there at first, I eventually get there. Glory, because I know the word is the only thing that works. So at the end of the day, but I want to be able to immediately, you know, no matter what happens, whether it's loss, whether it's grief, no matter what shows up, I can always go right to the word and find hope. And be refreshed. Glory to the name of God. But that comes through total submission to his word. And so yesterday we discovered that we got to know who we're not before we can know who he is in us. And we kind of talked about that day before yesterday too, but we kind of unpacked it a little more yesterday. And so we just kind of basically wrapped up talking about you cannot put any confidence in your flesh. Again, we're teaching on confidence, so you can't put any confidence in your sarks, your flesh, your carnality, your— you can't put confidence in your intelligence, your way of doing and being right. You got to put confidence in his way of doing and being right. All right, so let's, let's, let's jump into man. I want you to write this down. I've been giving you these little notes. This is— glory to God, I think I've given you 5 so far. Yeah, I'm gonna give you one. I'm gonna give you one today. Um, write this down, type it in the comments. And this is about pride, because again, pride is that spirit, man, that shows up. Hear me? And pride is trying to get you to operate in this arrogance that leaves you alone because God rejects the proud, people reject the proud, all right? And that aloneness leads to an abortion of purpose, an abortion of destiny, an abortion of plans. And then after you abort, you become an adventurous— because now you've run everybody off, you've aborted the dream, because purpose can't be fulfilled in isolation. And now you're this vagabond that's listlessly wandering, trying to find yourself and figure out how you fit, not in church but in life. Hear me, glory to God. Or how you're supposed to show up in the world. You're trying to figure out how you fit, and so now you start taking these risks. And adventurism ultimately leads to adultery, which is to be satisfied by something that's not yours. To be satisfied in a situation that you're not supposed to be in. So yeah, it's not just sexual unfaithfulness to a married person— that's a part of it— but it's also being satisfied with a life that you were not created to be living. All right, so yeah, let's get into this today, man. So pride it has a trajectory, all right? It seeks— hear me— to put confidence in the flesh. So when you, when you align yourself with pride, it's constantly trying to push you, okay, to trust your flesh. And that's what a lot of people do. They end up trusting in their way of doing it over God, and it never works. Pride comes before destruction. The Holy privet for a fall. All right, see, pride wants you to do good— watch this— so you can feel good. Because pride believes if you do good, you'll feel good. And the reality is, that's, that's, that's partial truth, right? Because doing things right, doing things good will make you feel good, but you got to do the right things for the right reason. You can't do things that you want to do to make you feel good, and they're not God's things that he wants you to do. You can't follow a plan or start a business or follow a dream that's not— that's not in the mind of God for you, or try to be somebody you're not because it makes you feel good. Ultimately, that's going to lead to destruction. It's not going to work. So what you need to do Glory to God. What you need to do is do what God says, and that's going to give you eternal joy. You're going to feel good eternally. So let's go to Galatians 3:28. Let's not waste a lot of time. Let's go. Galatians 3:28 today. Glory to God. Hallelujah. We thank God for Jesus. He's a good God. Listen, if you're just joining us again, please share. It's just nice to be nice. Glory to God. Uh, share this with someone else. Make sure they can get this word into their life. Glory to God. I love him. Galatians 3:28. The Bible says, there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. So watch this. So, so the scripture is basically saying there's no more male, female, no Jew Greek. Watch this. Doctor, no factory worker. Watch this. Nor dentist, nor ditch digger, nor black, nor white. Hear this, it say we are all one in Christ. So this is not just about gender, it's about positioning. But a lot of people will take pride in what they've accomplished and start exalting themselves over other people. And listen, ladies and gentlemen, that is not the will of God. That's not the plan of God for your life at all, on no day, point blank in the story. It just, it just isn't, okay? It just isn't. So what you have to do, hear me, you have to— and here we go— you got to choose. Watch this. Against all odds. Hear me, to trust God no matter what state you're in, because we're all one in Christ and God has no respecter of persons. And what he does for a doctor, he'll do for a factory worker. Oh, y'all ain't got to say nothing to me. What he does for a billion-dollar entrepreneur, God will do— glory to the name of God— for a bus driver. It's just a matter of moving in his favor, his ability, his mindset and understanding You got a right to what Christ has, just like the doctor, just like the factory worker. Are y'all hearing this? No difference. We're all one in Christ. Matter of fact, Jesus broke down this dividing wall so that we all can be one in him and experience the blessing of God together and not turn our nose up in arrogance and pride at other people. We're better together. We're in it together, guys. Listen, type that in the comments: we're better together. Jesus— what? Jesus tore the wall down. He wants us together. He wants us operating as one in him. Go to Ephesians 2:14. Ephesians 2:14. Glory to Jesus. You're going to find these words. The Bible says, for he is our peace who have made both one and have broken down the middle wall of partition between us. So Jesus is our peace. So when there's division among us, if we both say we got Jesus, only thing that keeps us apart is pride, because we're not willing to accept the fact that Jesus, that we both say we have Hallelujah! Breaks the divide. He breaks down the wall, which is pride that divides us. Because the only reason two people that say they got Jesus, or a group of people that say they got Jesus, remain divided— because they have not accepted the fact that Jesus broke the wall of partition down. Oh God, because again, the dividing wall was pride. So Jesus humbled himself, became obedient to the death, crucified his flesh, so that through his death, through his life, through his resurrection, you and I— glory to God— can be one. You and I can move in unity. You and I can experience the things of God. Oh my God, Jesus is a powerful— he's a powerful dude, man. Listen, so basically what he's saying, your worth in this text is not in being a Jew, it's not in anything you have or anything you do. He's saying either your worth is in me Oh, watch this. Or you have no worth. Honestly, glory to God, our worth is not in what we do, but our true value is in Christ. It's not in how much money you made, it's not in who you know. Your value is in him. It's not how many clicks you get on your Facebook or your YouTube or how many subscribers you get. Our value is in him. And watch this, the moment you realize that, you won't care about clicks and you'll get them. Glory to God. The moment you realize that, you won't be concerned about what other people think. You'll live for the audience of one because you understand my true value comes from him. So, so you do what you do for the audience of one. You do it for God, you do it through God, you do it in God. And then people are magnetically drawn to what you do because it's not you then. Oh God, because you have found that the value of what you do is not how you do it, how you say it, how you word it, how you show up, but it's what God does through you and how he magnifies himself in you. Oh my God, today. Oh my God, today. So I pray you're getting this. So your worth is in him. So if I understand that my worth is in not what you did to me, my worth is not in what you said about me, my worth is not in how you gossip or whisper about me, you know, you got to get to a point like me where you can care less about that. But what you do care about is the value that Jesus, the high value, and we talked about this yesterday, how your stock rises when you get a revelation of who you are. You gotta concentrate on the high value that God has placed on you. And when you do that, it's easy to forgive, it's easy to tear down walls, it's easy to flow in that value. And you know what real love does? It reaps coals of fire the head of your enemy. It can burn them into a place of purity and cleanliness. Oh my God, and clean them up. They can be— they can operate this level of cleanliness that you never thought they could because you moved in love. Oh God. But you try to be mad and be mean and, and, and non-Christlike is not going to help the situation. I'm working on you. I'm trying to help you. I'm working on you today. Glory to God. Listen, you got to pull the wall down. So let's talk about some things. Let's kind of— let's see if we can identify some areas, because remember, the little foxes spoil the vine, right? The little foxes spoil the vine. So let's try to find some little things that we may put confidence in. Let's find some fleshly things that possibly you're putting confidence in, because you may be saying, Apostle, I'm all right with this. I ain't putting no confidence in my flesh. I'm good. Yeah, let's, let's see, let's see, let's see. Um, first of all, number one, here's the thing that a lot of people put confidence The first one is other people's flesh, all right? They put confidence in people they know. Oh, oh my God, they put confidence in people they know. So that's why they name drop or not. I know this person, I know that person, I've been here. Uh, come on, man, and you're using that to flaunt or get in somewhere, open the door. The reality is The only confidence you need is in God. Glory to God. Not in other people's flesh. Matter of fact, the reality is you need to make sure that you have prioritized your confidence in God so that you never— hallelujah— put someone else's ability above his ability. Glory to God. Glory to God. I don't care what they have. I don't care how many— I was talking to someone last night about a project that I'm doing with them, and I said, listen, instead of putting confidence in what other people can invest in you to get this project done, put confidence in the God in you and the dream that God has given you, and trust God to use you to do everything you can in your power through through your confidence in him. Hear me, to create the capital that you need to create so that this project can be everything God wants it to be. Reality is, you know, nobody's gonna believe in you like you believe in you. And so you got to be willing to invest in yourself. You got to have confidence in what God told you to do. Amen, amen, and amen. So people put confidence in other people's flesh. Wait a minute, we also put confidence in our own flesh. Here we go, talked about that yesterday, our works. So we boast about our works, you know, and at the end of the day, that's not what God wants us to do. It's not what he wants us to do. It is, is not— listen, I'm telling you, I'm learning this lesson. Watch this, the more successful I come become, the more I grow, the more I make an impact in certain areas, I'm learning how not to put confidence in my ability. Because it's easy when you create something or do something to step back from it and say, man, that's nice, you know, you did a great job. And it's good to celebrate it. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying don't celebrate yourself. Remember we talked about that yesterday? You can have humility without degrading yourself. But when you become dependent upon your ability— so what I've learned to do when I hit a brick wall, and even while I'm working, a lot of times I'm talking to God. God, help me. Show me how to do this. What does this mean? How do I look at this? What does my eye need to see right here? Because at the end of the day, he knows things I don't know. And so what he does is he ends up guiding me through the process. So there's no reason for you to be ignorant. The Holy Spirit will teach you all things. The Bible, the scripture says that. I mean, the only reason we're ignorant in areas— ignorance is not a bad word, it's ignosis, which means you just ignore the knowledge that's there. The reality is we're ignoring the Holy Spirit's knowledge, his mind, to tell us what we need to do when we need to be consulting with him every day at all times. Oh, help us God, in everything that we're doing. So you can't put confidence in your flesh. So we put confidence in other people's flesh, our flesh, and we also— oh my God, here we go, here we go, boy, this is a big one here— we put confidence in our flesh's flesh. What are you talking about, Apostle? Let me tell you, we put too much confidence in our children. Glory to the name of God. Listen, Listen, we— well, you ever seen somebody, oh, my baby, my baby's so cute, my baby's so smart, oh, my baby do this, my— and we got a lot of confidence. But I'm telling you, as a person that, uh, has raised children, that's got grown children, yeah, they can be all of that. They look— I remember Ben and Michael and Alex was these little oodly coodly woodly babies. I don't know what you do. You're so precious, just so wonderful. You know, they boys, so you would change the diaper and every now and then they would, you know, they would pee on you. You know, they pee on you. Yeah, that ain't gonna bother you. Ain't nothing but some Similac, some milk. Glory to God, that's TT, right? Glory to God. Them jokers grown now. Let one of them pee on me now. Yeah, listen, because it's— they've changed. Glory to the name of God. They're men. All I'm saying, glory to the name of God, You can't be overly confident in your flesh's flesh. You got to teach them the right way, because a lot of times you're overconfident and something happens and they disappoint you, you just can't go, I can't believe my baby did that, I can't believe my baby said that. Oh yeah, because like, you got to train them in the way they should go, and when they're old they won't depart. And that's where your confidence has to be, in God's word, in your prayers for them. Not in their ability. And watch this, how you educate them and how you lead them the right way. So with all my kids, even the ones I've inherited through marriage, I, I pray for them, glory to the name of God, and I confidently trust that they're going to follow the ways of God. But I can't put no gun to none of them head and tell them what they need to be doing. I can look at all of their life and say something they need to be doing different. And that's on everything I love. Glory to God. But all of them grown except Alex. So at the end of the day, all I can do is lead. All I can do is pray and hope that they will obey what the Lord is sharing with them to do. Are y'all hearing this? You can't put confidence in our flesh. It's flesh, man. Listen. 'Cause you can't get your worth out of other people. My son Alex, watch this, lemme use this for example. 'Cause all my kids, I mean even the ones I inherited in marriage, Payton, Tyler, Alex, Ben, Michael, all of them are talented, they're gifted, right? But lemme use Alex for an example 'cause he's the youngest, he's the baby. Alex is an extremely— when I listen to me, I'm not just saying this because he my boy. I'm saying this because Alex for real is an extremely gifted quarterback. I know this because I know sports. I know this because I watched him play. I know this because I prayed over him that he would be a gifted athlete when he was a baby because I saw athletics in his future. and it's just unfolding now. The prophetic word of his life is happening. I prophesied over him when he was a baby that he will be special, and that because of even the circumstances he was born in, that God will cause his name to be great and people will know who he is, and it will overcome anything connected to negativity concerning him. And I'm telling you right now, it's already unfolding. But here, I don't find my worth in Alex being a quarterback that will potentially go to the NFL and become an NFL quarterback. I mean, when I was looking at Patrick Mahomes win the Super Bowl this past week, all I could see was my son winning the Super Bowl. But I don't gain my worth in that. Because if something happens and he don't go, God forbid, and he don't, or if he go and don't win the Super Bowl, I can't build my whole worth on what he's gifted to do. All I could do is continue to lead him. See, here, here's the part. We don't get our worth from other people. Oh my God, we don't get our worth out of— oh my baby, they just the smartest person in the classroom, they just make all A's. They just— listen, okay, okay, but, and at the end of the day, it doesn't give you a right to put any other person's child down And it doesn't give you a right— watch this— to put your own personal confidence in them and gain your worth from what they're doing. Because here's a fact: they made the A's. All right, what you make? What, what's your grades? What did you make? So what you need to be trying to do is make an A in life so you can continue to be a good example for them and continue to lead them. Are y'all hearing this? Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Yeah, I've seen married women put confidence in their husband. Yeah, my husband is this, my husband is that. Okay, at the end of the day, the reality is you cannot get your worth from who someone else is. You got to discover your true value. You got to discover who you are, and you got to be it with your whole heart. Are y'all hearing me today? Glory to God. My God, today. Oh, listen, let me, let me give— let me— and then we're gonna move. We're gonna go to John 2:24. John 2:24. I shouldn't talk about the people— watch this— in the world that I meet even famous people to build my self-worth. And I've met a lot of famous people. I played golf with famous people. Um, I have been in meetings with famous people. I— and a lot of it I don't even talk about a lot because I don't want to use that as my foundation of confidence, and I don't want to use that to impress people. You know why? Because I believe that who God has made me is impressive enough because I got him. So I just talk about my God, which most of the time, which is what got me to the table, got me in those rooms, because I led with God. I didn't lead with, I know such and such, oh my God, or I've done business with such and such before, or I preach for such and such. No, I lead with me. I lead with God confidence and God's mind, and it always works. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Sometimes people have to, you know, say what they've accomplished, say who they know, to make them feel confident to accomplish a task. You know, here's honest God truth. There's a time in my ministry— thank you, Holy Spirit— transparent moment, transparent moment. Don't judge me. Come on, come on, don't judge me, don't judge me. But God, thank God for freedom. There was a time when I was itinerant preaching, and I'm talking about before there was Instagram. You know, preachers have built these itineraries now, which is great through social media, but before there was MySpace, I was traveling 10,000, 15,000 miles a month doing revivals, preaching. All over this country. But I lack some confidence sometimes, and so I would go in certain places and, uh, I would maybe be on a conference or a meeting with some preachers who were more popular than I was or who had a bigger following than me. I was just really blessed to be on the team, and I was glad to be there to minister and do what God was calling me to do. To do. But a lot of times before I would preach and I get up in my preliminary, I would talk about places I've been that were big places. I would talk about people I preached for that were big preachers, just to kind of make myself feel comfortable being in that environment with those people who were more popular than me. Now this is years ago, but God delivered me from that crap, man. You know, it doesn't matter, you know, where I've been, who I know. I am who I am, and obviously I'm here because I have something that this meeting needs, just like those people do. And so you have to be confident that when God places you in a place, you don't have to throw your accomplishments around to make people accept you. You're where you are because people want you there anyway. Oh God, go to John 2:24. John 2:24. I'm sorry, John 2:24. Y'all stay with me, we're gonna get through today. Shabante kosi. John 2:24. The Bible says, but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men. Listen, what is Jesus? Jesus, this is Jesus. Jesus didn't commit himself to these people. And if you lean into this text, because he knew them, he knew they were flesh, he knew— oh my God— he knew they were dependent upon their flesh. Wait a minute. So wait a minute, you don't ever want to be so dependent on you and confident in you that Jesus looked and said, okay, I can't commit to that right there, what you're doing. It's almost just step back and let you be on your own. And then when you get your mind right and decide you're gonna trust me, hear me, I'm gonna come back to you. Hear this. And then I can commit to you because you're being led of the Spirit, so you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walk in the Spirit so you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. So I can't commit to that because that's your flesh. I need you to understand there's some things that we do that Jesus cannot commit to because it's our flesh. And oftentimes, if it's, if it's dry, if it's not working, if there's no resource there and God is not moving in it and you're not trusting him and confident in him and you're doing something out of your flesh, you're missing the boat, you're missing the blessing. Because God says, okay, you operating in your will, I know you, you're moving in your flesh, and I can't co-sign with that. Some stuff the Lord is not signing up for. I'm telling you right now, we, we need to stop putting the Lord in everything. He's not in everything. He's not in stuff. He's not— I just read it— he's not in— he's not committed to things that are born out of your flesh. He's committed to things that are born out of spirit, things that he ordained. And listen, he wants to get you on track. It's never too late, you just gotta trust him. All right, go to Matthew 26. Glory to God. 26 and 41. Matthew 26:41. We moving. Glory to God. Matthew 26:41. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah. The Bible says, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. So watch and pray, all right. Okay, don't, don't just pray, but watch. What do you mean, Michael? Um, in the military we had Gregorian watches. That what this— that's what this word in Greek is, Gregorio, and it literally means to stay awake and to guard and to keep. So you stay awake and you guard and keep that which God is committed to. Like the young people say, you stay woke. Glory to God. You, you, you, you, you guarding the blessing of God on your life. You're guarding your gifts. You're not letting everybody in. I, I saw a post that Minister Alexander posted. Mia, it was powerful. She posted this yesterday or early this morning or something, but I saw it and it said, glory to the name of God, close the door and don't let the world in. That spoke volumes to me. You have to be able to close the door, glory to God, and not let worldly systems, worldly paradigms, people who are not eternal in their thinking, and not allow them in. So you got to be a Gregorian guard. You got to stand your watch while you praying, making sure nothing gets in. You got to be careful that you don't open any doors, any portals, with systems that are not godly come in and infiltrate your way of doing. You know why? Because Jesus said it here, the spirit is willing. Yeah, I know you want to do it, I know you want to get it done, I know you want to do the right thing, but you got to remember your flesh is weak. And guess what? Unfortunately, when you get saved, you still have flesh. God saves your spirit, he doesn't save your body. I'm gonna say that again for the people in the back. God saves your spirit, he doesn't save your body. And what he tells you to do is crucify your flesh with your new way of life. Glory to God. He tells you to bring your flesh under submission to the ways of God because it's weak. And left to your own devices, you will implode. Implosion is a destruction from the inside out, which means what happens to you won't be because of external forces. There'll be an implosion, not an explosion. So explosion explodes out, it's something external that causes the breach, that causes everything to break down. But an implosion has to— a greater impact because it's something inside that causes the breach, that causes the breakdown. And your flesh is a dangerous piece. It's willing, and, and it's like a powder keg. And if it connects with soulish carnal activity, it'll cause you to implode, it'll cause you to break down. So you got to understand, the flesh is weak. So you can't put your confidence in other people's flesh. You can't put your confidence your flesh, our flesh. We can't put our confidence in our flesh's flesh, our children. Y'all got that? Listen, okay, okay, okay, I'll say that dangerous thinking always leads to the flesh imploding, or the flesh giving in to its weakness. That's why we were praying about that renewed mind this morning. You got to renew your mind, man, so that you think right. Are y'all here? Oh my God, are you here? You got to get— you got to get your mind right, man. Get your mind right so that you're thinking on what's pure. We read it this morning: lovely, just, good, winsome. Think on these things so that your plans can be established and that you may succeed. Are y'all hearing me? Ah, God. Okay, let me give you an example of what dangerous thinking looks like. All right, when you make statements like— yeah, this is good. I don't know how I would ever survive without blank. That's dangerous thinking. I, I listen, I don't care how much they do for you, I don't care how committed they are to you, but it's dangerous thinking to say words like I don't know how I would survive without blank. Ooh wee wee wee. Just think about somebody you know that's important to you. Doesn't mean they're not important, but it could be very dangerous to think you wouldn't survive if they wasn't here, because the first thing that'll happen, they'll leave. Or you lose them. Now what you gonna do? Because you know, you have created the word out of your mouth, I don't know what I would do without blank. Let me tell you something, you're gonna keep living, you're gonna live on, you're gonna live with God, and you're going to live through the confidence of God. You got to realize that people that God sent to us, they are, they are resources that come from heaven to help us fulfill purpose. Not for us to put all our confidence in. Oh my God, oh my God, I thank God for all of you that's connected to this ministry. All of you guys bring something great to the table. You have great gifts. Thank God for all of you, every last one of you, how you support me, how you support the vision, how you— glory to the name of God— do what you're supposed to do. I appreciate you, but I can't say, oh my God, I don't know what I'll do without XYZ. It'll hurt if I lost you, but at the end of the day, I got to realize my confidence in doing the work of God has to be in him. Are y'all hearing this? You got to put your confidence in the Father. That's dangerous thinking. So again, that's one thing we— we— again, we've started this trying to figure out what some fleshly things We put confidence in. So we said, other people's flesh, our own flesh, and our flesh is flesh. So, you know, I think that kind of hit everybody, but if it didn't, let's keep going. There are some people that put confidence in their education. Listen, it's fine to have education. I'm an advocate for it. I'm a champion for it. I have education, but you don't put your confidence in that. Glory to God. Don't put your confidence there. Listen, think of all the people— I want you to think about this— that God uses that has very little education. I mean, most people that God uses in a great fashion Most of them, and I've seen them, they have no college. I've seen people drop out of high school, anointed, powerful, glory on their life, successful, prosperous, because their confidence is in God. I've seen preachers who could not read because they stopped going to school, but God taught them to read through them reading the word. And so they begin to preach the word, and their reading ability came through their gift. And they became very successful as pastors. So you can't put all your confidence in education. I mean, it's no reason to be arrogant. It's good to have, again, and trust me, I'm not fighting it because I believe we all should be learners, and I'm— again, I'm a champion for it, and I believe that education breeds confidence, but you cannot put your confidence in it. See, education will make you feel confident that you can do it, but at the end of the day, you're not to put all your confidence in it. 1 Corinthians 1, let's read it, let's, let's read it, let's, let's read 1 Corinthians 1 and verses 19 through 21. 1:19 through 21, guys. And what we're going to see here is God's view on education. And we're going to see what happens if we depend on it versus him when we read this. Okay, the Bible says, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. Oh, come on. And will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. So when you're arrogant with education and wisdom, God says, I'm gonna destroy it, right? He says, I'm going to bring it to nothing. Verse 20, where is the wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the disputer of this world? Have not God made the foolish wisdom of this world? Verse 21, for after that, in God's— in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So again, education can be used, is important, but it has to be in context. And God says, okay, my view on it is wisdom, education, knowledge coupled with arrogance equals zero God. That's what it is. So when you add knowledge, wisdom, plus arrogance, it equals no God, because God rejects all of those things. He rejects those things aligned together. Here he rejects wisdom that's arrogant, that's prudent, educational understanding that's prudent, that's too arrogant, that's too puffed up. Come on, man, we need him, we need him. Glory to God, we need him, we need him. Oh boy, go to Isaiah 61:1. Almost done, guys. Isaiah 61:1. Thank you, Jesus. Glory to God. Isaiah 61:1. I love God. How about you? Thank you, Lord. Isaiah 61:1. We love you, Father. Glory to Jesus. The Bible says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Yeah, because he has anointed me and qualified me to preach the gospel to the poor, open prison doors, and set the captives free. So watch this, the anointing trumps education every time. I'm gonna say that again, when it comes to anything you're doing in the kingdom, and you can, you can get the education that to go along with or labor in subjection to the anointing on your life. So let's, let's say you're a lawyer, okay, you got that education to become a lawyer. Glory to God, right? Oh yeah. And you, what, you go to school, you get that law degree, and you, and you now submit that degree to the anointing so that it— maybe not like a preacher sets the captives free, but now because you're anointed, your, your anointing on your legal work begins to set people free from prison, set them free from jail. It begins to strategically, through the anointing, try cases that are worthy of being tried in honesty and integrity and is getting breakthroughs in the legal system. Oh, wow. So education works, but the anointing trumps it. It has to be upon you when you're doing an assignment from God. So we can't put our confidence in the education, we put it in the anointing. How about there are people that put confidence in their appearance? How they look. Oh my God. There's a saying that say you look good, you play good, you feel good. And that's truth, right? I believe that. I believe you look good, you feel good. If you, and I believe as an athlete, you look good, you're gonna play, you know, you don't play good, you gonna play better than you play. You know, cause I've seen some people that didn't look good, they outplayed everybody. But at the end of the day, the reality is It does give you a spark of self-confidence when you look the part, but you cannot put your total confidence in this. See, your appearance is about how you look and not who you really are, but you have to make both things align. So even if you dress nice and look good You need to be as nice on the inside. I've seen well-dressed people mean as a rattlesnake. Oh my God, well-dressed people who couldn't tell the truth if you paid them. Y'all ain't talking to me here. Glory to God. Clean on the outside but dirty on the inside. And so what we got to do is, is again not feel like because of how I look I got a right to be arrogant, I got a right to look down on people. Because I look a certain way. No ma'am, no sir. Uh, 1 Peter 3:4. Watch this, let's go. 1 Peter 3 and 4. I hope y'all getting something today. Glory to God. 1 Peter 3:4. So what we're going to see here when we read this is that, yeah, the hidden man of the heart is what God looks at. Not how we adorn ourselves. Come on, verse 4, it said, but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of the meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God great price. So God's not looking at, you know, whether you're sporting You know, Gucci, Louis, what are you doing all that? You know, he's not looking at that. You know, at the end of the day, he's looking at your heart. Now if you like that, you like that. I mean, that's— I like things like that. So at the end of the day, uh, I'm thankful that God has blessed me to be able to have those things. But at the end of the day, I don't look down on other people that don't have them. That's just what I like, you know. And but I'm the kind of guy, I don't have to have that neither. I know who I am without that because I know how to be a base and I know how to bow. I've been without that. Glory to God. I've been where I had one suit and I was traveling the country with one black suit. I had about 3 shirts, 5 ties, one pair of shoes. I preached in the shoes till holes was in the bottom because it wasn't what I had on, it was what was in my heart. I preached with power, prophesied, lay hands on the sick, they recovered. I did what God called me to do. I mean, those— that suit was polyester. I mean, I get to sweating, them sisters get to sticking to me. Polyester sticking on my legs, glory to God. Fighting each other, fabric sticking together, static, glory to God. Uh, there are times I didn't have money to dry clean the suit. Sometimes I'm gonna have to, you know, wipe it down, spray it down, and iron it. And polyester, black polyester, it's gonna shine. So let me tell you something. People say, oh man, the glory is on. No, that suit just cheap, man. No glory. Glory to God. Listen, let me— I take my shoes off when I preach. Oh my God, he took his shoes off, he's moving the holy ground. Now all them shoes had holes in them, my feet was hurting. Listen, that's why I don't apologize for anything I have now, but that stuff doesn't make me. So what I'm saying is my confidence ain't in what I got on. That's why now even when I preach, I don't wear a suit every Sunday. I, I wear what I feel like wearing. If I feel like putting on a suit, that's what I felt like putting on. If I come in with a sweatshirt and some jeans and some sneakers, that's what I felt like putting on. At the end of the day, my appearance doesn't make me who I am. Now, now, with that said, let's balance this thing out. Image is important to what you represent and who you represent. You just don't put your confidence in it. I'm not saying you deliberately choose to be raggedy. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying— or to be, uh, cheesy, or to dress, you know, unbecoming of godliness. God looks at your heart, but people looking at the outside. The Bible says man look at the outer appearance. So you want to make sure that your outer appearance is together. All right, but you want to make sure your heart is right as well. That's all I'm saying. You cannot put your confidence in the outer appearance. Okay, you cannot put your confidence— let me just slow down— in your outer appearance. You can't do it. You can't do it, guys. But you gotta make sure your heart is right, and you gotta balance it out and make sure you look decent. Okay, are you hearing this? Uh, boy, there are people— watch this— that also put confidence— may not be you, but there are people that put confidence in the things they own. Their clothes, their jewelry, their fur coats. Oh my God, their house, their boat, their summer home, their vacation home. The confidence is in a conglomerate of things. Mm, listen, God wants us to enjoy things that we have, but never flaunt it before others to appear important and make them feel bad. No, that's not the way of God. Okay, let me keep moving. There are people that put their confidence in positions. That's why you see all these people have these positions and titles. I'm the apostle in the Lord's church. My name is Apostle such and such. You know, I don't even introduce myself like that to people. Um, I really just try to do the work of an apostle. I've been doing it, you know, for a while now, and so I just don't need to flaunt that. I don't have it in front of my name on my Facebook page. You know, at the end of the day, I believe it's more important to be the office and show the fruit than to say the office, uh, and there are a lot of people that say things they are and you can't see the fruit thereof. Uh, you can't take pride in a position, so on your job or in the church, you know, I'm the district overseer of this— okay, I'm the, I'm the plant manager, I'm the regional vice president. It's okay to have the position But again, you don't flaunt it in pride. Listen, let me tell you something. I want you to look at your life and look at positions you've held and how you made them mean more than to you than they really should have. The reality is when you do that, you create delays, you slow yourself down from moving to the next level. Oh boy, because honestly, you'll never be promoted from your present position until you become overqualified for your present position. I'm gonna say that again. You'll never be promoted from your present position condition until you become overqualified for that present position condition. And what makes you overqualified for it is that you learn that the position is not you, and that it doesn't make you who you are, and that there's always room for growth, there's always more, there's always increase. And so you do your very best in that position until promotion comes and you become overqualified for it, but you don't put all your confidence in it. Oh my God. Here's another one. People put confidence in their talents and abilities. I'm almost done. Glory to God. Let's go to John 3:27. Oh boy, I hope y'all learning something today. John 3:27. Glory to God. Glory to Jesus. We love you, Father, and we praise you. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. Glory to God. So really, any talent, any ability you have it came from God. Are y'all hearing this? Any ability you're able to walk in, it came from God. So again, don't flaunt that. If you're a prophet, don't flaunt that. If you're a teacher, don't flaunt that. Who you are, you are because God made you that person. Every good and perfect gift comes from above. And you know, I have met people who don't have natural talent, and a lot of times they feel worthless. And that's crazy because at the end of the day, you shouldn't ever feel worthless because God has equipped every one of us with everything we need to be who we are. Listen, you have what you need to be who you are. Matter of fact, type that in the comments, guys. I have everything I need to be who I am. Woo! And they don't need you feeling worthless because when God created you, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. And he put in you everything you need to be the very best version of you. So don't you ever feel worthless because, you know, you see others with just natural ability to do things, but that's— they're only tapping into their gifts and abilities. You tap into who you are and it's going to be a natural knack for you to do it. That's a good sign. That you're doing what you were created to do when it just comes easy. Glory to God. I love Jesus, man. He's so good. Glory to God. Write this down. This is a good one. It's good. No, put it in the comments. Write it down. Remember it. God looks for availability more than he does ability. He looks for availability more than he does ability. Are y'all hearing this? Are you hearing this? See, you so concerned about ability, and God says, I just, I just need you to be availability. We'll work— I need your availability. We'll work the rest of it out later. I just need you to show up. I need you to surrender and we'll emerge the ability later. Glory to God. Well, I'm not ready. I'm not qualified. I don't have enough. Look, God says no, just be available. Hashish. Availability is the ability to avail. So when that produces the ability to avail, to become great, to be successful, to be effective when you show up saying, okay, I bring all of this to you and I'm not going to be overconfident in this ability. Glory to God. I'm almost done. Glory to God. See, because abilities are developed through charisma, God's grace. Yeah, ability is developed through God's grace, guys. So when God gives you the grace or a grace gift, which we all have a grace gift It is consistently developed over the process of time through grace. You just got to keep making yourself available. See, people— and it's nothing against the people that just born with the stuff. That's why I work on, even with Alex, I work on his humility, making sure he stays a humble child even with his gift. Because even Ben, with his gift, I work on them. I talk to them about humility. I talk to them about, you know, staying focused on God, putting God at the forefront. You know, I, I listen, at the end of the day, because a lot of times when you have natural abilities to do things and it just comes natural to you, you feel important, you feel more important than others sometimes, and you got to keep that in check. Okay, okay, okay. I'm gonna keep going. Somebody said, Apostle, just, just keep going. I'm gonna keep going. I am. Here's another thing, and I think this is like the 7th thing I've given you that people can feel, because maybe the other 6 didn't hit you. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe you don't put confidence in other people's flesh, or your flesh, or your flesh's flesh. Or maybe you don't put confidence in education, or appearance, or things you own, or positions or talents or abilities, but maybe perhaps you put a— oh my God— confidence in your accomplishments. Maybe perhaps you put confidence in your— if you listen, if you put your confidence in what you accomplish and what you have accomplished You're going to get heavily involved in works and not faith, in performance and not pleasure. When we should be operating in the pleasure mode of God, we should be doing what pleases him so God can say, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. He, he never created us to perform for him, but when you get into accomplishments, you become a person who wants to perform for God and you think you're going to be rewarded for your accomplishments and your works. And, and many a times you end up miserable and frustrated because it never works, because those are fleshly operations, because you're trying to do it in yourself. Oh my God, oh my God, I'm done, I'm done. So let me show you what God's tool chest is, where God looks when he starts using people. And I'm gonna close with this. 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1, guys, uh, verses 24. 31. This is the last scripture, I think. Does the Holy Spirit say something else? It's the last one. Glory to God, glory to God, hallelujah, glory to God. Yeah, 1 Corinthians 1:24. Y'all there? Y'all still with me? I'm almost done. It says, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the of God. I'll read it again. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. So everyone that is called to be a Jew, a Greek, whether you're in Christ with the power of God and the wisdom of God. Verse 25 said, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. My God, it's good. I don't have time. Verse 26, for ye see the— your your calling, brethren. How that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty men, not many noble are called. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. And God had chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. Verse 28: And the base things of the world and things which are despised, and God hath chosen— hear this, man— Here it is. And things which are not, to bring to nought the things that are. We see in God's treasure chest here— I'm gonna talk about it in a minute— that no flesh should glory in his presence, but him— oh my God— him who is in Christ Jesus, who is of God, is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Verse 31, that according as it is written, he that glorif— glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Wait a minute, so we— God's treasure chest. So here's the point. Most time, because, you know, we look at other people who find their confidence in other people's flesh, their own flesh, their flesh is flesh, education, appearance, things they own, positions, talents, abilities, accomplishments. And many times, if we don't— we're not able to fit in those categories where we can feel confident in one of those areas, what we tend to do is reject ourselves. And I want— and I just want to close with this because you got to stop rejecting yourself. You are important. God will choose you. But if you reject yourself, even if God chooses you, it doesn't— oh my God— ensure that he'll use you because you may reject him because you, you bought into this pattern of rejecting yourself. But can I tell you something? We just read what God uses in his treasure chest. He uses weak things, he uses foolish things, he uses base and low things, despised and rejected things. He uses nothings, people that everybody else label as nothing. He uses those things to say, oh my God, God used a little boy that went through all that stuff in his childhood, all that rejection, all that abuse. He used that young girl that was molested, that was raped, that was adopted. He uses people who've been pushed away. Listen, there's treasure in the trash. Oh my God, I'm done. There's treasure in the trash. And God says, don't despise your crisis, don't curse your crisis, don't curse the trash that you've gone through. God says, I will take those things and get the glory out of your life. That's why I thank God for the seasons I went through trials, and I was a base, and I was low. Glory to God, it's, it's where I am now is a testament to what God can do, not what Michael Woods can do. And that's why my confidence in him. And that's what I'm saying, you got to lead with that. You got to lead with the fact that you are who you are because of him, that he brought you out of stuff that no man could bring you out of, that he delivered you from things that no man could deliver you from. You're special, man. So you could have confidence without conceit. Glory to God. I'm so glad for this teaching. I'm done. In fact, we're done with that part part of the series, uh, Confidence Without Cassie. Listen, we're still going to talk about confidence tomorrow, but we get to go into another subject and it's going to be so powerful. We're going to talk about doing it afraid, having the confidence to do it afraid, even when your flesh is operating— is operating in fear. God didn't give it to you, but then sometimes you're just afraid. We're going to talk about how to do it afraid. Listen, I thank you guys for joining us today. I want to go right into— I feel led to do this right now— praying for someone that needs to be saved. Listen, maybe you scroll to this right here at this moment in the end, or maybe you've been watching me the whole time saying, what is this man talking about confidence? What is he talking about putting my confidence in God? Listen, those of us who are born again, we have learned that our life is only significant in him. And I'm telling you right now, if you're watching me and you're not born again, which means you haven't received Jesus Christ as your Savior— maybe you've listened to some craziness and you believe that your ancestors and all of this stuff— you need— listen, the only person that can save you is Jesus Christ. Maybe you listen to this crazy doctrine that says you're already saved. No, you have to receive him. You have to repent of your sin. And the Bible is clear: if you confess with your mouth— it's just as simple— believe in your heart that Jesus died from the dead and he rose from— oh my God— that same grave they put him in, the Bible says you shall be saved. Listen, if you're listening to me now, you know your business is not straightened if you died today. You will not make it to heaven because you refuse to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. I want to challenge you to receive him right now. I want to challenge you to let him in, to confess with your mouth that you're a sinner, and to believe in your heart that he did die on that bloody cross for you to be born again, that he did get up from the grave with all power in his hand so that you could be saved. If that's you and you say, I want to be saved, Apostle Woods, today, I want you to pray this prayer with me. Say, Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, I confess, and I'm a sinner, I need to be saved. Say, I open my heart and I invite you in. I confess I'm a sinner. Save me. Say, I believe that Jesus died and rose again, and because of this, in this moment, right now, I am saved. Glory to God! If you prayed that prayer with me, it's the truth. You're born again right now. In this moment. I want to take you through the next steps. Glory to God. I want to help you be baptized. Glory to the name of God. I want to help you find a Bible teaching church. And glory to the name of God, yes, yes, I want to help you be filled with the Holy Ghost because Acts 2:38 says, repent every one of you of your sins for the remission of your sins. So you just did that, you just repented for the remission of your sins. Then it says, be baptized, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to baptize you, glory to the name of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, so that you can receive the immersion. You can have a— glory to— a death of your flesh symbolically and spiritually through water baptism. And then it says you should be filled with the Holy Ghost. I want to teach you the— the— oh my God, the value of the Holy Spirit and how to receive him in your life. Glory to God. So write me at rodderchurch.com/contact. Say, Apostle, I prayed with you, I want to get the information you talked about, please send it to me so I can take the next steps in my walk with God. Listen, I love you all. Listen, support the ministry. I, I challenge y'all every day, um, here, here these last few days to support the ministry the way ways to give are on the screen. Please be obedient, support the ministry, get your seed in the ground. We love you guys. Y'all have a great day. This is day 16. We go— oh my God, going to day 17 tomorrow. Looking forward to it. Y'all be blessed. Peace.