Watch Your Mouth & Develop the Spirit of Excellence Part 3

Amen. And how Satan doesn't like it. Amen. What I'm about to say is the total truth, as God is my witness, as I stand in this sacred desk before this great cloud of witnesses before me right now. I might not have been here today. You may have been at my funeral. Oh, wow. Monday or Tuesday of this past week, I wasn't feeling that well, I think at work or whatever, and a little tired as well. But you and Pastor Tracy know about the, the 4-lane bypass in Carrollton? Mm-hmm. The one that, um, just say if you're leaving Walmart in Carrollton heading towards Villa Rica, if you're on the bypass and you pass the big church on the left before you start going up the hill and you come to the traffic light, you can turn right and you can go to— where is, um, what Chick-fil-A will be on your left and Longhorn will be on your right, but back up to get on the 4-lane. As God is my witness, and every time this happens, it's about God having his angels charge over me to get my attention. I was going directly into maybe a line of 19 or 20 cars. Oh my God. No braking. I was about this close or a little further back, such as the camera, maybe the first car in front of me. When I woke up, I saw the car coming towards me, which it wasn't coming towards me. It was just sitting there for the traffic light, about 20 cars in front of me. No time to brake. All I could do is go to the right where the shoulder is and get out of the pathway of that car. Wow. Because God, by his angels, just woke me up just in time to go to the right because I would have drilled immediately. I mean, I was just coming fast into the back of the cars that was in front of me. Oh my God. No braking. Wasn't no time. All I could do is, by the grace of God, God had the control to say, hey, swing to the right, get on the shoulder, and then get back in the lane and whatnot. If it weren't for that, you may have been preaching my funeral yesterday. So, yes, Satan doesn't like it. Praise God. That's right. Thank God he doesn't like it. Praise God. We don't want him to like it. That's right. Amen. Amen. Praise God. Praise God. Hallelujah. We're going to continue on part 3 of this message that the Lord has me on about to release the champion inside. That's one thing Satan does not want That champion to be released on the inside. Amen. Amen. So the title of this message is very simple: Watch Your Mouth and Develop a Spirit of Excellence to Help Release the Champion Inside. Amen. Watch Your Mouth and Develop a Spirit of Excellence to Help Release the Champion Inside, part 3. Amen. Amen. Praise God. We must be careful of the words we allow to come out of our mouth. That speaks so boldly and so carefully, uh, it's so self-explanatory. It works for those who are unfortunately with the evil or those who are with the good. Amen. Amen. It's true. I mean, I've seen it on both sides, both sides of the fence, those who are not fearing God and those who do fear God. When they work and watching the words that come out of their mouth, you see them do amazing things. Muhammad Ali, or Cassius Clay, used to always say, I'm the greatest. He believed in himself. He believed in his God-given talents and whatnot. And guess what? He was the greatest at that particular time. Yes, sir. And so many other people who have used words carefully In confidence, not arrogance, but in confidence, saying that they are, um, good in their talent or their gift. They have excelled. Amen. Yes. Because of being careful the words they use. These words will create the victory or failure that come out of our mouth. We will meet down the path we will encounter in the very near future. Come on. Let me say that again. Yes. Those words that come out of our mouth will create the victory or the failure we will meet down the path that we encounter in a, in the very near future. The scripture tells us plainly in the book of Proverbs 18:21. Proverbs chapter 18, verse 21, from the Amplified Version. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it and indulge it will eat its fruit. bear the consequences of their words. Amen. Amen. One great example of this we can find in King David as he approached the situation to fight Goliath, the champion of the Philistines. Let's examine this confident— the confident words of David's unflinching faith in God's power to deliver David in a fight with Goliath. Let's go to 1 Samuel 17 to find out David's unflinching confidence that God was going to deliver him. Amen. 1 Samuel 17, starting at verse 32. David was using the correct words. Yes. He was young. Yes. Inexperienced in the eyes of the people. That, uh, helps teach us about human logic versus what God's ability and power to do. Yes. Amen. Amen. Man was looking at David as being young and inexperienced. David was looking at how big my God is, my Lord. And according to David, Goliath was a small ant. According to King Saul, the first king of Israel at that particular time, Goliath was the big mountain. But David said, nah, Goliath is just like anything else that I defeated in the past with God's help. He's no big deal. Yeah. Amen. Amen. 17, verse 32. Amen. Amen. Praise God. Let me get there myself. And it reads thusly, and David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Now David was a young lad at this particular time, and he's telling the king of Israel, you and your army, don't let no one's heart fail. It's like King Saul said, what has this young man been drinking? I thought I put the best wine away. How did he get in there? Guards, I'm going to arrest you. Something wrong with this statement from this young man. That's right. Son, are you blind? Do you see how big that guy is over there? And you say don't let your heart fail? Come on. What do you know that we don't know? And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. Amen. And Saul said to David, you are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth. It's like King Saul said, son, where you trying to go, he's already been there. That's right. This man has been at war for years, a warrior for years. You just getting started. Praise God. Praise God. But David said to Saul, your servant used to keep sheep for his father, and when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb, a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard And struck him and killed him. Now he's talking about grabbing the beard of a lion or a bear. My Lord. My Lord, as well as my Savior. Now if you see the average man grabbing the, the beard of a lion, praise God, we won't be there that long. Amen. Praise God. We're going to join the rest of the crowd about a mile running, about a mile down the road. Hallelujah! Let this man have his way. But how can this unflinching confidence, this unflinching faith, come for this young man? Yes. His experiences trusting God by spending time with God. David was a worshiper, a praiser of God. He loved praising God. He loved worshiping God. It comes back to the major theme that this minister has been saying and preaching for so many weeks and months, that time with the Father. It just builds that confidence. It takes your eyes off what you see in the natural, and it puts your eyes on what will be done by faith. My Lord as well as my Savior. Does that make any sense? Saul and the army are looking at things in the natural. I see a giant man, David. David said, I see a giant God. What's your problem? Wow. Is God bigger or Goliath bigger? My Lord as well as my Savior. Come on, it's like Saul looking at David crazy and David looking at Saul crazy. My goodness. Is God bigger than Goliath or not, or King Saul? Come on. I'm ready. Come on. Bring it. Bring it. My Lord. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them. For he has defied the armies of the living God. Lord have mercy. And David said, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. Now there's putting it in context. David said, who? The Lord. The Lord. He didn't say himself. Goes back to what we was preaching about the weakness. Admit that we're weak. Take that posture of weakness that I cannot do nothing without you, God. It's not going to get done without you, God. That's what David is— is that humming on that theme right now? The Lord will deliver me. Not me will deliver me, but the Lord will deliver me. And Saul said to David, go, and the Lord be with you. I'm gonna stand on this side of the mountain. Praise God. My. Praise God. I don't know which version of wine you was drinking, but I'm gonna stay over here. I'm gonna execute the guard that left you in my cellar. Praise God. You going by yourself, David? You, you got the confidence? You got the faith? Go and fight the Goliath. I'm going to stay over here. I won't be with you, but praise God, I'm going to see what's going to happen. Praise God. So where's this paradigm comes from? One person, King Saul, looking at things in the natural. Yes. Because of what? Not spending that time With the Father, to develop that relationship with the Father. Because if you develop that relationship with the Father like David did, you gradually more and more and more and more see that God is more bigger than anything we face. Does that make any sense? Yes, sir. One person, King Saul, Exhibit A. is the next perfect example of what happens when you don't spend time with God. You see things in the natural. Yes. See things in the carnal. Yes. You look at things that, hey, if I can handle it or if I cannot handle it. But David spending time with the Father, worshiping and praising the Father, learning and knowing that God, through that confidence that he's developed with God by spending time with him, It's like David said, there's nothing too hard for God. I'm ready, bring it. How big is he? He's not big enough. Wow. Amen. Wow. Goliath get you and the army. You're not enough, Goliath. Bring it. What do you got? I want you and the army. King Saul look at him and said— King Saul said, let's run, this kid gonna get us killed. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. David said, I want you and the army. Praise God. As David in 1 Samuel 17:32-37, as we just read, Uh, David flexes his faith muscles to declare that the giant that King Saul and the army of Israel is afraid of is no challenge for our living God. Hallelujah. And David, we all know, comes out on the victory side of the words he declared before the Lord before he fought Goliath. Yes. He said the Lord would deliver him. The Lord would deliver him. As he delivered— God, the Lord delivered him from the lion and the bear. He's going to deliver me from this giant. Yes. His confidence was in the Lord. Yes. Saul's confidence was in his ability. Mm. Man's ability. Right. You're going to fail every time. Right. That's right. Because you're going to look at the situation, the circumstances, and see if you can take this project or not. And if you feel like it's too much for you, you're not going to take it. That's right. You're not going to do it. That's right. Hallelujah. David takes a look at the situation and don't look at it in carnal, don't look at it after the flesh, but look at it through the eyes of faith and says, I can do it through Christ who strengthens me. Amen. In order to appreciate this example better, let's look at how unbelief caused someone to state negative words and it caused a negative physical reaction, uh, to come upon him. Let's look at Luke chapter 1. Amen. Luke chapter 1. Amen. Amen. Amen. Starting verse 11. Amen. Amen. Luke chapter 1, starting in verse 11. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord. This is Zechariah, um, who is the— in family relationship with mother— with Mary, the mother of Jesus. Amen. As the angel Gabriel came to announce to Zechariah that he would have a son, In old age. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. There it goes. We're looking at things in the natural. Yes. Usually mankind, because we haven't seen something or don't have that relationship with, with God, when we see something out of the ordinary, we may panic. Amen. That's right. Sometimes that means a situation that we're not spending time with God, that, you know, we won't fear things. Praise God. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. Praise God. Amen. Let's drop down to verse 18. And Zechariah said to the angel, how shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years. And the angel answered— here's the come, that negative reaction to his physical being— and the angel answered him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. Amen. Amen. And behold, you will be silent And unable to speak until the the day of that these things take place. Why? Because you did what? Not believe my words. His unbelief. That's why Jesus said out of the heart comes what? All the issues of life. If we don't believe. It's going to come out in the way we speak. Amen. Amen. My Lord as well as my Savior. Now, if I don't believe I can take a project that God has given me to do, well, words coming out of my mouth is going to be, this is wrong, this can't be from God, I must be hearing from another spirit. Yeah, right. Amen. Amen. So my unbelief had me to choose the words that came out of my mouth. There it goes again. What's the answer? Spending that time with God. Amen. That's right. Because as you spend that time with God and develop a relationship with someone, you begin to trust that someone, especially if you know that they're going to keep their word, that they're always going to be there for you. You know you can depend on that person. Yes. Because you have developed that relationship. Yes. That's right. It's like a, a little daughter may be outside of the school door waiting for her dad to come, and because she has a relationship with her dad, knowing that her dad has always been there to pick her up, she has confidence. He may be running a little late, But she's confident what? That he's coming. Why? Because she has that relationship with her father. She's not worried. Now, if she didn't have a good relationship with her father and he wasn't halfway coming and things like that, right there, say, hey, let me ride with you, Joe. Praise God. I got to get out of here. It's getting dark. Hallelujah. I don't know where my old man is. Praise God. I need to call the police. Hallelujah. Praise God. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. So here you have a man having a negative reaction in his body because of his unbelief. To the opposite end, Mary believed when the angel told her she would have a son. Amen. Amen. Now let's look at God being patient with one of his children in the person of Abraham, watching how Abraham slowly comes around into believing And we will see the results watching— see the results of the assigned future blessings for Ishmael and Isaac. Let's go to Genesis 17. The book of Genesis, chapter 17, starting at verse 15. Verse 15. Genesis chapter 17, starting at 15. Amen. Amen. Praise God, I've got to say amen. Amen. And God said to Abraham, as for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations. Kings of peoples shall come from her. I'm reading out of ESV, the English Standard Version. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, Shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old? Our first reaction is to look at things from a human logic. That's right. Human logic says, I'm 100 years old. My days are over with God. How can I have a child? I need, I need to get some Voltaren. What? Praise God. It's too late for me, God. Amen. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old? Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child? And Abraham said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live before you! God said, no, But Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him. There's a key phrase right there. I will establish my covenant with him. He didn't say that with Ishmael. He said it with Isaac. Amen. We're not going to go over that too fast. We're going to explain that. I will establish my covenant with him. as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. Amen. Amen. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Meaning Abraham was a concerned father. He still loved Ishmael. God said, hey, I heard your cry for your son Ishmael. Behold, I have blessed him. Let's look at the difference. Ishmael, God said, I will bless you. But Isaac, he said, I would establish my covenant with Isaac. But Ishmael, he blessed. Yes. There's a difference. Yes. And we're about to go over that. I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father 12 princes. And I will make him into a great nation, but I will establish my covenant. There it goes again. God is being detailed. Yes. He's giving his covenant with Isaac. He does not use those words with Ishmael. We can't go over that too fast. I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year. When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Now God had went up from Abraham because Abraham, he knew, was coming around to believe what he's saying. Amen. He had stopped laughing and he was listening to God. And after God finished the conversation, God left knowing that Abraham was believing in what he said now. That's why he was patient with Abraham, letting it come around. And as he— as the conversation was going, Abraham was believing more and more. Yes. That's why God was able to leave him, saying, hey, I see that you're straight now, Abraham. You, you believe in what I'm saying now, so I'm leaving. Amen. Amen. So let's go over this thing with the covenants and whatnot. Amen. In Genesis 17:15-22, we see Ishmael not being forgotten by God because of his loving father Abraham, and how God keep him firm to his intended purpose to keep covenant with Isaac. Ishmael is associated with the Arab people, saying that pretty much the Arab people are descendants of Ishmael. And there are billions and billions of Arab people. Amen. Amen. If you look at Israel in the Middle East, Israel is the only nation in that particular geographic area of the world in the Middle East where it's pretty much just Jews in Israel, or delegated for Jews. Everything to the north and to the east and to the south of Israel is Arab. To the west of Israel is the Mediterranean Sea. So there's no west to Israel, there's just water to the west. But to the north, you got Syria, you got Jordan, and these other places, they're all Arab. Yes. That's why the United States concentrates so much. God has God is— by God, not by man, has America so much in defense of Israel, sending weapons and everything else, because they're a nation unto themselves with everything around them as enemies, potentially. And the main reason they stay away from attacking Israel, because they know United States is pretty much going to get involved. Yes. And our weapons are much more advanced Than what the other Arab countries have. So they know not to mess with Israel because their weapons are inferior to what the weapons that we are giving or selling to Israel. They can't match it. Wow. Everything to the north, east, and south of Israel is Arab. God keeping firm to his intended purpose to keep covenant with Isaac. Ishmael is associated with the Arab people. Ishmael receives blessings in Genesis 17:20. We just read that in 17:20. He's talking about he'll be blessed, but Isaac receives the covenant in Genesis 17, verse 21. the divine promise of land. Here's the covenant. What does that covenant involve? The divine promise of the land. Amen. That territory where Israel is, and descendants, and spiritual legacy. Isaac becomes the father of Jacob through whom the Abrahamic covenant continues, and Jesus is the fulfillment of covenant. Ishmael's lineage does not include the Messiah. Wow. Listen to that carefully. That's where we see the difference between the blessing and the covenant. Ishmael had many people promised to him out of the 12 sons that he had, and out of those 12 sons comes the Arab people. Yes. But their lineage, their ancestry does not include a bloodline going to Jesus. Only Isaac is. Wow. Wow. Through him shall all nations of the earth be what? Blessed. You can't say that about Ishmael. That's right. Ishmael is blessed to be a great number of people, the Arab world, but only Isaac is the main thing, the spiritual supremacy, the spiritual lineage of Jesus Christ the Messiah, through whom all the world will be blessed. All nations of the world will be blessed because of what? Jesus. Wow. The second half of our lesson is to develop spirit of, uh, spirit of excellence. We can start with Daniel chapter 6, verse 3 from last week. Amen. Amen. Let's go to that. Daniel chapter 6, starting at verse 3. Amen. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because what an excellent spirit was in him. Yes, yes. Amen. It's just like, um, an athlete training for the 400-meter or something. You may be given a God-given talent of speed, but you still got to develop. You still got to train. That's right. If you're going to be in the Olympics, you're going against the what? Best. That's right. In the world. And you cannot afford to to rest on your laurels thinking that you can just show up at the Olympics and the gun, the sound of the gun go off to start and you beat people from Russia or Argentina or whatnot and you haven't been training. That's right. Same with an excellent spirit. We still have to develop. We still have to be under tutelage, under training. Amen? Amen. So, an excellent spirit is something that nearly every well-meaning boss, supervisor, pastor, or department head wants to see their employee or minister help— wants to see in them. Why? Because it makes the job easier. Yes. And it helps their business responsibilities to go more smoothly. That's right. Any well-meaning supervisor, any well-meaning pastor, any well-meaning department head, what would you like to have under you as employees? Someone that's level-headed, smooth, easy to get along with, knows what they're doing. Because why? That allows you to get to other more important matters. That's right. You may have to set the budget for the department. You can't be out on the floor worried about the person that's leading the people on the floor, and you need to be at your desk setting the budget, meeting targets and deadlines and whatnot, amen? That's right. You're gonna be there till 9 o'clock at night, and the wife call and say, when you coming home for dinner? That's right. Everybody been gone from the building for 4 hours, but you still at the computer desk. Right. Because you don't have a competent person on the floor leading the people on the floor. That's right. But do you have someone with an excellent spirit? Excellent spirit. Someone with the wisdom, someone with the drive and determination to work with integrity. Yes. To work with purpose. Yes. And know what they're doing and want to do a good job, who's proud about— takes pride in their work. Not the wrong type of pride, but the right type of pride in the work. That's right. When you have that person at work, you can be at home for dinner on time. That's right. That's right. You can tell the wife, I got the right man in charge now. Yes, exactly. I can be at home for dinner on time every day now. Right. I don't have to stay 4 hours after everybody's gone. That's right. Does that make any sense? Other places we find this characteristic is in Daniel 5:14. Let's turn to chapter 5 of Daniel, verse 14. Praise God. Amen. Amen. Let me start at verse 13. Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, you are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah. I have heard of you, that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not show the interpretation of the matter. But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now let's look at the, the buildup of this story that we just read. This man has heard that Daniel can interpret dreams and interpret different situations and whatnot. Uh huh. Let's build this up. This started because Daniel was consistent at being excellent at his work and distinguished himself on a continuous basis. He was consistent. What can we turn to to give an example? We can look at sports. Tom Brady. Many people looked at this man while he was on the football field, the gridiron if you will, as a quarterback, he was pretty much unmatched. Yes. Because he was consistent, that C word, with doing his job excellently. And because of that, he has 7 rings. Yes. Well, it took no time for people around the country and around the world to learn about this man because of his diligence. Tom Brady. That's true. Same with Daniel. Because of him being consistent with being diligent, doing the job correctly, God will blow your name up. People in high positions, they're going to learn. They come to come to the department head and say, "Hey, have you heard about Henry? Henry knows what he's doing. He's tearing it up out there on the floor. Everybody respects him. He's getting a good reputation. It's going to start going to the office and to the head people immediately. His reputation is going to get around. Does that make any sense?" Let's go to Ruth chapter three. I mean, Ruth chapter three, verse eleven. And now my daughter. Do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask. For all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. That's right. Now, who was this that said— who— what, what, what, what people knew that she was a worthy woman? All my fellow townsmen. Wow. God exalted her before the, the whole townspeople because of her attitude of having an excellent spirit, being kind, yes, doing her job, yes, helping Naomi, yes. Doing things diligently. She may not have known it, but this person right here tells her that the whole all my fellow townsmen know of you. God will broadcast that. Is this making any sense? Yes, sir. You may not know it. But God will start tapping on people's shoulders and say, "Watch that person. Watch him. An excellent spirit is on them. They're distinguishing themselves." This will help bring out the champion inside. A champion is going to be known, and it's going to have a wide and great reputation. Did everybody know Muhammad Ali? Yes, they knew Muhammad Ali. Come on. Am I making any sense? That's why as we develop, this is a part of the development. That's our choice. That's our choice. We can choose to be sorry, or we can choose to be excellent. Hallelujah! I got to back away from that my own self. Praise God! Hallelujah! Look at my own self in the mirror. Praise God. Come on, is this making any sense? Yes, sir. That's our choice. That's our choice. What did we say weeks and weeks ago? God gave us one power that he refused to take away— the power of choice. We can choose to be sorry, or we can choose to be diligent. If we choose to be diligent, God said, I will put you before kings. I will put you before presidents. I will put you before Prime ministers. Wow! You will be a champion. Yes. God said, "I'll bring out the champion inside because you choose to be diligent." I will broadcast your name like wildfire. Everyone will know about you. Why? Why? Because you made the wise choice to be diligent. Yes. To do your job with excellence. Yes. To take pride in your work, not to be arrogant. Stay humble. Praise God! You don't have to broadcast it. God said, "I'll do the broadcasting." Just be at your job, doing your job with excellence and integrity. I'll do the broadcasting. You don't have to worry about it. I'll have people around the world know about you. Hallelujah! Come on. Is this making any sense? God said, I will do the exalting. Yes. I'll do the broadcasting. Yes. The whole townspeople knew her. Yes. Knew of her reputation. Wow. Hallelujah. Good. That's good. Let's look at how we can develop an excellent spirit. Let's go to Colossians 3, verse 23. Colossians, the book of Colossians. Amen. Chapter 3. This is how we can develop the spirit of excellence. Amen. Amen. Once again, out of the ESV, the English Standard Version. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord, And not for men. Wow. My Lord as well as my Savior. God says give it your best. That decision is up to us. There it goes again. That's right. It's up to us if we want to do it or not. That's right. That's right. God says, I don't care how many people know about you right now. That's right. If it may be 1 or 2 or 3 people, but they know about it. I don't care if there's only 1 or 2 people know about the ministry. That's right. You continue to do your work heartily for me, I'm going to broadcast you. Hallelujah. So it's not just a small thing for God to work with a minister or a person or a group of people who's not known by many people at one point, right? But if that group of people, that individual works heartily Yes. Put their whole heart into it. Yes. Make the choice. Yes. To work with diligence. Yes. To do a good job. Yes. To make a good product. Yes. To give a good service. Yes. God says, I will broadcast you. Broadcast you. You will be known before everyone. Wow. Hallelujah. We're getting this out of the word of God. We're not getting this out from, uh, from Jack in the Box. Amen. Praise God. Let that high-calorie popcorn alone. Throw it in the trash can. Amen. Jack in the Box not telling you this. Our God is telling you this through the holy word of God. Amen. You're not getting this out of Jack in the Box. That's right. Amen. Let's go to Proverbs chapter 8. Hallelujah. Proverbs chapter 8. Praise his holy name. God is not going to leave us in the blind if we want to improve. Amen. That's right. Because God says, draw what? Nigh to me. That's right. And I'll draw nigh to you. If you want to be serious, come to me, make time for me. I'll show you things. I'll show you my secrets. That's so true. That's so very true. And that's what scripture says. He shows the secrets to those who keep his covenant, making that time with him. That's when the other ones who have given half service are wondering, why is that ministry, why is that group of people, why is that person going farther than me? I've been in the ministry 15, 20 years. I've never seen speed like that. What's going on? Don't, don't be surprised if God said, when's the last time you spent time with me, son? Praise God. Yeah, you rather look at Knots Landing than spending time with me. Hallelujah. JR is dead, you still looking at the reruns. Hallelujah. You ought to get that remote control and turn the off button on and spend time in the closet with me. That's right, that's right. You got Brother So-and-so and Sister So-and-so spending time with me. Yes. And you wondering why you still in the, in the dust, in the ancestor time, and don't know what's going on. And you see some brother so-and-so and sister so-and-so taking off, right? You're not spending any time with me. As we went over the lesson before, Jesus was recorded as spending at least 9 hours when he went up into the mountain. Coming out at the 4th watch. At the 4th watch. Started in the evening. Finished in the 4th watch. Anywhere from 9 to 12 hours. When he was choosing the disciples in the book of Luke. That's right. Prayed all night. Could have been 6, 7, or 8 hours starting at night. Thank you, Jesus. Jesus spent time with the Father, and the Pharisees are wondering, why is this man taking all the attention? We're used to being called Rabbi. All the people are giving their attention to him. They don't want to even know us. We can't even get someone to look our way. They're asking, where is Jesus? Bypassing us. Hallelujah. This is unacceptable. Yes. Amen. We need people to be worshiping us. They're going to Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. That time. That time. Hallelujah. 8:33. Hear instruction and be wise. And do not neglect it. There's another step in developing that point, that, that's, uh, that characteristic of excellence. Yes. To hear instruction from the one who knows better, who's been there. Yes. Learn from what we— what do we call— what's the vernacular that we use? A mentor. Yes. Someone who's been where you're trying to go. Get up under their wing. Learn. Yes. I know as many times that someone may want to learn to do something that you may be gifted in and that you've been in for years. Sometimes you want to lay out that test to see if that person's serious. Let me give him a few instructions to see if he's going to follow through with that. That's right. If he follow through with that, I'm going to give him the next phase. If he follow through with that, I see he's more serious, because I'm not going to waste my time with someone that's not serious. So this is what gets back to Proverbs 8:33, hear instruction and be wise. What is wise? Taking that instruction and dealing with it, using it, making it work, applying it. That's wise. A mentor who sees you're serious is not going to play with you. They're going to give you sophisticated, serious instruction that's going to help you out. Why? Because they see that you want serious. Once you convince the mentor that you're serious, they say, "Oh, I see he's serious. I'm not going to play with this one. Every time he or she comes to me, I'm going to give them qualified instruction." And they will make them the more wiser. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Proverbs chapter 22, same book, Proverbs 22, starting at verse 29, and we're about to end. Hallelujah. Proverbs chapter 22, verse 29. Do you see a man skillful in his work, my lord? Wow. He will stand before what? Kings. We've been saying that all along. Now, I didn't write this in the Bible. I was born in 1963. This Bible was written many centuries before I came along. Hallelujah. I had no idea what a Bible was when I was in my mother's womb. Amen. That's right. This was in here before me. Wow. Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before what? Kings. He didn't say king without the S. Said kings with an S. Why is it kings with an S? Because everyone with a common sense in leadership, kings will want what you Come on. Why? Because they know it's going to advance them. If you come up— the Lord has blessed you with the intellectual mind to be a software developer. You have something that can put your government on an even keel with different departments and different agencies working on a smooth line with this sophisticated software. And you came up with it. You have the insight and the mind that you've been working on this thing for years and you perfected it. Amen. Guess what? Kings around the world, heads of state, prime ministers, presidents, they're going to be what? Calling you. Your phone is going to be ringing off the hook. That's right. You're in demand. You're in demand. Yes. Because of why? You have sought God. You did your work with excellence. You did it heartily. God says, "I'm going to promote you." You're not forgetting God. You're making time for God, having that diligent quiet time, still spending time with God. But because you're spending that time with God, and God is promoting you with making your intellect, your your gift more and more sound, more and more perfected kings with an S, my Lord. As well as my Savior. Calls from around the world are going to be coming to you. Glory, glory, glory. I need to meet with you. Yes. You have something that's going to help me get my government on an even keel. Yes. It will save us millions of dollars. Yes. Praise God. Does that make any sense? Yes. He will not stand before obscure men. Obscure men. Lord have mercy. People that don't have no good intention. Right. People that don't have no vision. People that are just out there just seeing how they can bet in the next football game. Wow. I bet on the Rams. I bet on the Cowboys. That's right. You're on your way to London to meet the Prime Minister. Praise God. I'll see you when I get back. Tell me who won. You won $5? All right, I just got $5 million. Which one, which, which one you want? Hallelujah. I just earned $5 million by talking to the Prime Minister of London to help give this software to his government, and you won $5 because the Indians beat the Cowboys. Hallelujah. Which one you want? Hallelujah. I'll read that again. Do you see a man skillful in his work, pouring his heart in, working heartily, as Colossians said? He will stand before kings with an S. I did not write that in there. As you see me coming through your window at nighttime to write in your Bible, get the shotgun. Hallelujah. Call the rock waller, sickle boy. Hallelujah! He will not stand before obscure men, men that don't mean nothing, mean men that are not up to nothing. Is this making any sense? This will help bring out the champion inside because God our Father. Hallelujah. Wants us on high. Yes, sir. It's God's will. Hallelujah. Amen and thank God. Hallelujah. Glory to God.