March 18, 2026
Pastor Rico Sharp shares his path from homelessness and addiction to leadership, teaching a four-step process for discovering and developing gifts: notice irritations, solve problems instantly, watch what you avoid. He frames gifts as divine treasure and calls listeners to stop sleeping through their season and become grave thieves who extract untapped potential for God's kingdom.
Chapters
to our marriage, but we've been married for 34 years. Can you believe that? 34 years. And, uh, we've been together for 3 years prior to marriage. So we fornicated for 3 years, and then we married for 34 years. And, um, this is one of the best things next to Jesus Christ that has ever happened to me. And I'm thankful for it.
Thank you.
I also want to thank God for my friend being here tonight. It's been a little while since I've been able to have fellowship with Cardinal McIntosh, but I thank God for him. And, uh, Bishop McIntosh was the person that actually brought me here tonight to speak, and he would come over and speak for me. And it's a wonderful opportunity to be reunited with such a powerful, distinguished man of God. I don't know if you all know You're powerful. We love you. We thank God for you. I also want to thank God for our other pastors for being here. I met a couple of the pastors last night and got a chance to meet some pastors tonight, and we thank God for them. Can you also thank God for them? And I want to thank God for you, Your Honor. Thank you for being here tonight, and may God bless you for the work that you're doing. I also, before I get into our team team tonight, I want to thank God for Lynell, where is Lynell? There she is. Lynell gave me this invitation to be able to come and to have this night with you all, and Lynell met me through Perry. Perry, can you raise your hand? Perry, uh, Is the the connection behind the scene that found me through my services and introduced me to the nail, and the nail introduced me to the pastors, her pastors, the parents, and here I am with you tonight. So I consider this to be a divine connection.
Amen.
Are there any other pastors in here that that I didn't acknowledge? All right.
All right.
Well, we thank God for each and every one of you that have come tonight to be. So whether you are a pastor or not, whether you're in ministry or not, if you're a school teacher, if you're an attorney, if you are an engineer, architect, whatever you are, we're grateful that you are here. Even if you're none of them things, you don't have a position, even if you don't have a title or nobody knows your name, you are in the right place at the right time. We're all here together to have a wonderful time, and I'm excited about what's going to happen in your life over these next 3 days. And so we give honor to each and every one of you.
Amen.
Now can you give yourself a round of applause? And what a fabulous introduction, what a very thorough and detailed introduction. I was going to come up here and talk about my books, but after I saw what you put together, Danielle, there's nothing left for me to say. So, um, you guys should feel like y'all know me by now. So I guess we'll just dive right into our lesson tonight. I think I have about 4 and a half hours to talk to I got a lot to talk to y'all tonight, so we don't want to waste any time. I'm going to ask if you will put up slide number 1.
We're going to talk about leadership.
We're going to talk about leadership, and leadership is, is something that is very, very important to me. And one of the things that I have come to understand about leadership is that Leadership is on the job training. It's not something that you can just pick up overnight. I don't care how long you spend in a college focusing on a leadership degree, it is something that you gradually grow into. I've trained leaders all over the place, all over the country and outside the country, and even in our own home church over the years. I've— we've had like 45, 50 leaders at one time 15, 20 pastors at one time up under us, and I've had to train leaders. Now, many people would ask me, where did you get these leaders from? Because our leaders always represent excellence and professionalism and perfection for as much as possible, and our leaders have become very, very successful. And people would ask me, where did you get your leaders from? And I would simply say, I raised them up.
A trainer. A leader.
A leader. Obviously, there is something that you have to do in order to bring the best out of people, but the first thing is that you have to understand that people are not yet what they're going to become. None of us, even as we sit here tonight, are operating in the fullness of our capacity. We grow, we mature, we develop, we evolve, and we learn how to become more and more of who God has created us to be. And so I would go into places where nobody else would go, and I would get people and bring them to our church, and I would train them and raise them up. I would go into the jails, into the prisons, into the streets, into the crack houses, up under the oak tree where all the winos and alcoholics would hang out, and we would get people that nobody else wanted. And we would minister to them, pray to them, and pray for them, and teach them how to focus internally and discover that they are someone in God, that they are someone in Christ, they have a purpose, and that they can do all things, and that nothing is impossible. And we would feed and pump them with the word and with biblical principles and with training and leadership development until we were able to bring out the best in them. My brand is called Bringing Out the Best in You.
Yes.
When I go to colleges and speak, they require for me to speak on my brand, Bringing Out the Best in You. I train corporate executives in colleges. I train corporate leaders and CEOs for Fortune 500 companies. I train people that are in the athletic industry. I mentor professional athletes in the NBA. And in the NFL, and I have an opportunity to build relationships with these professional organizations. And whenever I go and speak, I'm always talking about bringing out the best in you. That's my keynote, that's my message, that's my focus, that's who I am. Somebody once asked me, where did I get this topic or this thought from? And I told them that I am living proof of what it means to bring out the best in you. When you look at me, you're seeing somebody who figured out how to look inside and discover what was on the inside And then extrapolated to the outside. I wasn't always a speaker. I wasn't always a preacher. I wasn't always a pastor. At one point in my life, at the age of 13, I was homeless, addicted to cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol, and I was a drug dealer who ended up in jail. 19 times and in prison 3 times and served years of my life as a teenager incarcerated.
Right.
And it was in that dark moment of my life that I began to discover that I am not what I have lived like, and I am not that person who have lived in darkness. That was a phase and a stage in my life where I was searching For a true identity. And the enemy got in the midst of things and deceived me to think that I was a hustler and a player and a street guy and a drug addict. But in a dark place, I got on my knees, I lifted up my eyes to heaven, and I said, God, please help me to discover Who I am and to become who you created me to be. That was March of 1993, and from that day to this day, I've been walking in the discovery of who God has revealed to me that he has created me to be. And after I discovered how to bring out the best in me, I made a vow and a commitment to God that I would travel the world and help other people to bring out the best in them. So today I speak in jails, I speak in prisons, I speak in mental institutions, I speak in homeless organizations, I speak for the federal government, state government, county government, I speak for major corporations All around the country and beyond. And I'm honored tonight to be here with each and every one of you to talk to you about bringing out the best in you. We're focusing on leadership tonight, so the first thing that I want to say is you gotta ask yourself this question: what is a leader? What is a leader? What is a leader? A leader is someone who brings out the best in others.
Yes.
Whatever capacity of leadership that you operate in, whether it is in the kingdom of God, whether it is on your job, whether it is in your family, whether it is in society or in a public office, whatever position of leadership that you hold, you are given that position not to make it all about you, but to make it about those you serve. Because leadership is about your responsibility to bring out the best in other people. Leadership is your responsibility to look into those around you and discover what they have and help them to realize what they have.
It is true that sometimes people don't know what they have.
Right. And sometimes you don't know what you have or what you possess. But when you get around good leaders, good leaders will help you to discover that you are somebody who has something great to offer humanity.
Right.
And when you begin to focus on what you have to offer humanity, then you begin to gradually perpetuate the process of leadership in your life, leadership development. Sometimes you have to borrow other people's vision and interpersonal focus of who you are and what you have until your personal vision kicks in. Sometimes you have to borrow other people's faith and belief in you until your personal faith and your personal belief in yourself kicks in. Sometimes you have to listen to what other people think of you until your mindset and your mentality catches up with what other people perceive you to possess. Because the truth is, we all have something special.
We all have something unique.
We all have a special talent that God has given us. Nobody is created with nothing to offer the world.
Right.
We're all created with something in our lives.
That if we just tapped into it, not only would it change our lives, but more importantly, it would change the lives of those around us. A leader discovers, develops, defines, and draws the best out of others. One of the things that I teach in my leadership academy are those four principles: a leader helps other people to discover. What their potentials are, what their gifts and talents are. And a leader helps people to develop their gifts and their talents. And a leader helps people to define what field, what area, what spectrum their talents and their gifts belong in.
And then a leader helps pull out of people that gift and that talent. People want to feel like they belong. People want to feel like they have something to offer.
People want to feel like that they are special and that they are an intricate part of whatever function or organization that we're all related to.
Right.
And a leader walks up to people and say, you have this gift in you, and I want to provide for you the opportunity and the platform, the space to be able to flow in that capacity.
And when you give people the opportunity to bring out of them what they have, now nothing shall be impossible.
You can accomplish anything, you can accomplish everything, and you can accomplish all things. How many of you believe that? Proverbs chapter 20, verse 5 says, counsel in the heart of man is like deep water. Take that word counsel and replace it with the word potential.
We're all born with potential.
Yes.
The potential is our seed or deposit on our personal and professional greatness.
But when you have potential, potential in itself is not enough.
A seed in itself is not enough.
You want that seed to become a harvest.
You want that potential to manifest and to produce. But it takes for someone who has the capacity to be able to see what other people possess to draw that potential out of them so that it can be used to bless the world.
So Proverbs says, counsel, potential, and the heart of man is like deep water.
Many people struggle with being able to bring out of them what they possess.
We're all impregnated with something that God has given us. We all have that potential, that seed that is on the inside of us, but it takes leaders to be able to connect with that potential and bring it out. So again, counsel in the heart of man It's like deep water, but a man of understanding, a man of wisdom, a man of vision, a woman who can look beyond the external and visualize the internal will be able to pull it out. And the person that pulls it out are called leaders.
Yes.
That's what we do. We pull out of others Amen.
A leader is someone who inspires, instructs, and empowers others toward a vision, a goal, or a better life. I was sharing with someone last night that my— our assistant pastor were people who were incarcerated.
Now imagine that.
Imagine that we built a 3,000-member church from our home and then went into the jailhouse and preached to a bunch of inmates and brought one of these inmates into our ministry and ministered to him and introduced him to our family and then made them the second person and authority in our organization. Imagine that, running multiple locations, worldwide television, on billboards across the city, and we put into the care of people who were incarcerated the position to be over thousands of people.
What happened? Leadership happened.
Right.
The leadership factor. We don't roll the dice. We don't take chances. We don't gamble with people. We develop people. We build people. We empower people. See, if you are good at being you, if you are authentic with being you, you can find somebody on the street who has nothing left to live for. And through your charisma, through your gifts, through your passion, you can resuscitate a dying man and give him reasons to live. This young man was not only incarcerated, but he was alienated in his marriage. His wife was somewhere else. Didn't want to have anything to do with him. And I said to him, I said, the first day she come to visit this church, she's going to get saved. God's going to restore. And a couple of weeks later, she came. She got saved. God restored them. And here we are now, 20 plus years later, and they are still together, still operating. Here's one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Proverbs 20:17.
As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
What does that scripture mean to you? What is God saying to us? It is important to get around people who knows how to build you up, to pump you up, to edify you. People who knows how to look beyond your faults and see your needs. People who have enough wisdom and grace to understand that you can go through something for 5 years, 10 years, 15, 20 years, and you not be what you went through. Because phases and stages and cycles can last for years. Seasons can last for years. Weeping may endure for a night, right? But joy comes in the morning. Psalms chapter 30, verse 5. But night there doesn't refer to 12 hours of darkness. Night there refers to a season. David said in Psalm 22:2 that I cried in my night seasons. When the Bible says weeping endureth for a night, it's not talking about when it gets dark, then you go to bed depressed and you're upset because some things are off balance in your life, but then when the sun comes up, you wake up and you're happy, joy comes in the morning.
That's—
how many of you know that's not reality? It's talking about seasons.
He's talking about cycles.
He's talking about phases and stages that we all go through. But yet the irony of it is that a season can shift any moment based upon certain things. Like, you can walk across the path of somebody who understands divine alignment, who understands divine timing, who operates in the gifts of the Spirit, who was called and mandated by God, and through your interaction with people, your whole life can change.
Right.
As I mentioned, I came off the street. I was incarcerated. But when we came into the kingdom of God, we started rubbing shoulders with people like Bishop T.D. Jakes, Dr. Michael D. Freeman, uh, Drs.
I.D.
and Bridgette Hilliard, Dr. Apostle Fred and Betty Price, And the list goes on and on and on. Bishop Cardinal McIntosh, amen. And the list goes on and on and on. And who would have ever thought that somebody who came off the street, who was addicted to cocaine at 13, would one day be able to walk into a crowded auditorium of people and speak on the platform and have government officials and federal officials and people from the Oval Office come to my meeting and sit down and listen to me train them and teach them about how to bring out the best in them, which is, which is what I do today. And so one of the things that inspired me was being around other people who operated in the capacity of their leadership abilities.
Right.
Because leaders give birth to leaders.
Yes.
Greatness gives birth to greatness.
Yes.
Sharpness gives birth to sharpness. If you take 2 pieces of metal and rub them together, it creates a certain friction, and that friction simultaneously is doing the same thing to both pieces of metal. It is sharpening both pieces of metal. If you ever want to become the best version of yourself, get around other people who are operating in the capacity of the best version of themselves. Do not allow for people to choose you as their acquaintance. You choose who you want to be associated with, and do not choose to hang out with people that has your problem. Find people who have your answer. Do not associate with people who have your question. Find yourself in the company of people who have your solution. Do not work further with people who have your weaknesses. Find the people who have strengths to your weaknesses, and that's where you will go. Are you understanding what I'm saying? A leader is someone who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. First Timothy four twelve says, "Be thou an example to the believers in word and conversation and spirit and faith." And in purity. This is what leaders does, right? They show you the way. They show you how to do what God has called you to do. Let's go to the next slide. Now I talked about what a leader is, right? I talked about how to operate around people who have that leadership capacity. And the reason I shared that with you is because I want you to see yourself as someone who is not only going to accompany the presence of other leaders, but you also extend your presence so that people can come around you and be sharpened. But before you can bring out the best in other people, You have to bring out the best in you before you can become that instrument that sharpen, strengthen, build, encourage, and empower other people. You got to make sure that you got you together, right? I didn't get no amen from y'all. Don't play with me now. You got to make sure that you got you together because you got to have something to offer. Right?
So I want to talk to you about discovering your gifts and your greatness.
Luke 6:45. This is, this is a scripture that I really began to focus on over the last several years of my life. This scripture right here has changed my life. This scripture right here has opened doors for me that couldn't have been opened any other way. One day God spoke to me. He said, a good man from the good treasure of his heart Brings forth good things. Brings forth good things. And so I have always had a personal, an internal, and an interpersonal focus. And I've always known this scripture as a pastor. Pastor, I've always known that verse, but it became very intimately acquainted in my life.
And then God began to walk me through the process of it.
He says a good man or a good woman brings forth good things from within their heart. So that means that you have some good things on the inside of you that perhaps you've not yet discovered, and if you have discovered, perhaps you've not yet extrapolated. When I got that verse, I was not operating in the capacity like I am now as a leadership developer or as a motivational speaker. I was just mainly a pastor and a preacher.
But then that verse began to open my understanding because it was God's way of saying, hey Rico, you got some more on the inside of you than just pastoring and preaching, and I need you to discover what you have because there is a whole world out there that is waiting for you to introduce to them this whole new dynamic of your life.
Amen.
And so I began to look inside.
When I looked inside, I realized that I have books inside of me, but I'm not reading. And so I started focusing on those books, and I got those books out of me.
And then God said, go back, because a good man from the good treasures of his heart bring forth good things.
And things is plural, so there's more than just one thing on the inside of you.
So then I looked again, and then I discovered I have a leadership academy on the inside of me, and I brought it out. And then God said, go back and look again, because a good man brings forth good things. And I looked again, and I discovered that I have a speaking academy on the inside. And then I brought that out. And then God said, look again. And then I discovered I have a speaker's agency on the inside of me. Then I brought that out. And God said, look again. And then I discovered that I had a curriculum for school on the inside of me.
And I'm working on some other things as we speak about, you know, the curriculums For different departments, HR department, sales department, and the list goes on and on and on.
And so I'm discovering more and more that I have treasure on the inside of me. And second Corinthians four and seven says that we have this treasure and earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. In other words, God says, "I place treasure on the inside of you that will operate with excellence." And if you will allow me to bring it out of you and give me the glory for it, I will bless you so that you can be a blessing to other people around the world. Now here's where, here's where we are. We love this scripture, Proverbs 18:16. A man's gift will make room for him and bring him before great men. That's true. I know that. A guy that I met that I admired for many, many, many, many years, a guy by the name of Dr. Les Brown. Anybody ever heard of Les Brown? Well, I've always admired Dr. Les Brown. In fact, I was in a conference way back in the early 2000s, about 2002, in Atlanta, Georgia with Bishop Jakes, and Les Brown was the speaker for this Man Hour conference.
And I had an opportunity to follow him over the years and learn from him and, and so on. Well, I had an opportunity a couple of months ago to meet Les Brown personally.
And how about this? Les Brown walked up to me and he said to me, he said, you have greatness on your life.
You got something special. You're going to go around the world and empower people. Can I have a picture with you? And I stopped and I thought for a moment. Now this seems a little bit backwards to me. I'm supposed to be asking you if I can have a picture with you, but Les Brown asked me if he could have a picture with me.
That's right.
And out of that, God begins to minister to me. There is a shift taking place where those that you have thought you would never ever be able to rub shoulders with, God says, I'm putting you in the room with greatness and the room with people who have things that they have to offer that will really propel you in the destiny that you're charged Can I say to you that each and every one of you in here tonight, you are here not by accident, not by chance?
Can I say that this is the night of destiny? Can I say to you that God ordained for you to be here tonight? Can I say to you that you have a great responsibility? Can I say to you that you have something special? Can I say to you that something good is about to happen in your life? Something great is about to happen in your life. And so anytime you get around people of greatness, that is a sign that God has you on his mind and that greatness is being introduced into your life. Now, 2 Timothy 1:6 says, stir up the gift that is in you. You have this gift. Another thing?
Treasure.
You have— and every investor, you have this treasure. You have this gift that is on the inside, and God is saying, I'm going to use that gift to create for you the life that you always dreamed of living. I'm going to use your gift to build for you the dream that you carry and the vision that you desire to give birth to.
Yes.
And so your gifts are very, very important.
Yes.
But one may ask, what are my gifts? I've counseled and mentored many people and pastored many people who felt like they had nothing to offer, who were great admirers for other people but didn't think that there were anything on the inside of them that they can offer that was of significance. But I say to you that everyone has gifts. You may not know what they are, but you have them.
Amen.
Now, let me give you some practical ways to understand what your gifts are, because I teach people how to discover their gifts and talents. Here's one practical way. Whenever you see something being done and in your view it's not being done correctly and it bothers you, Yeah. that's because you're called to operate in that area. That is an area you are gifted in. Number 2, Whenever you were able to figure out solutions to problems in seconds and moments and minutes, whereby it may take other people to pull their hair out trying to figure it out, and they struggle with it and try with it and still can't figure it out, but it comes to you naturally, that's your gift at work. That is an area You are gifted in. Number 3, the very thing that you know you are good at, but you run from, you don't want to do it, you don't want to get bothered with it, but you know that if you were to engage it and commit to it, that you can do it like nobody else can, that's your gift.
You're running from it. And people have the propensity to automatically flee from the areas of our call. We got a whole lot of Jonahs sitting in here right now that God says go to Nineveh and you don't want to go. Yeah. But you're called, you're gifted, you're anointed and appointed, and God relies on you to answer the call. to be able to bring out of you what he's placed on the inside of you. You are gifted, you are talented, and you have multiple gifts and multiple talents on the inside of you. Some of you are sitting here right now with books and poems and dreams and things of that nature that are on the inside of you— hair businesses, construction businesses, all types of businesses— but yet you're still in a place right now where you're focusing more on the outside than you are on the inside because you're focusing on how to make ends meet. And many of you, you feel the tugging and the pulling of your gifts saying, let's go to work, but you're caught up right now in a unique situation that is relatively tight. So tight that you don't want to leave the job you're on right now because you don't want to miss a paycheck. But you know you don't like doing what you do. You hate going to work Monday morning. You don't even want to get up in the morning. You don't even want to do this anymore. You know this is not your gift. It's not your calling at work. But you're kind of stuck there because you're relying on the fluency of that paycheck to continue flowing in every Friday or however often you get paid. And yet your gift is saying, but this is really not you. You're not passionate about it. This is really not what you want to do. You're just calling for the system right now, and you're waiting for a break.
Who am I talking to?
I know you can't raise your hand because you don't want folk to know that I'm talking to you. But when you get in your car and you start driving home, just nod your head 2 times.
So yeah, he was right on.
See, when you're focusing on leadership, you got to get to a point where you're willing to take chances to bring out of you what's on the inside of you. And you're going to understand why I say that in our next slide. Some of you work a job right now, you do just enough to keep from getting fired, and they pay you just enough to keep from Quitting. You didn't hear that. I said they pay you just enough to keep you from quitting, and you do just enough to keep from getting fired. Here's the question, and you can go to the next slide.
What good treasure do you have Yes. What good treasure do you have in your heart that you need to bring forth?
Slide number 3. Determine to die old in inventory.
Here's why I said that. Many people reach a certain age or stage in life And then they stop growing, they stop pursuing, they stop believing, they stop dreaming, they stop aspiring for greater.
In other words, some people stop living at 50 but isn't buried until 75.
Anytime you come to a place where you're no longer dreaming in life and you're no longer aspiring to do greater things Anytime you arrive at a point in your life where you don't feel like there's nothing left for you to do, there's nothing left for you to accomplish, and you lose your zeal and you lose your aspiration, and you come to a point where you feel like you've seen it all, you've done it all, you're at a point right now where you have just retired from life.
Wow.
You're at a point where you feel like there's nothing left for me to go after.
At that moment, you die, but you continue to breathe and exist. So you're not buried until later on. But the moment you give up going after life, the moment you give up believing that you have something greater to offer, the moment you give up believing that God can do a new thing in your life, the moment you give up believing that there's something big that you've never experienced before that God wants to manifest on your behalf, the moment you give up Walking in faith and being a visionary and being somebody who is goal-oriented, the moment you lose your tenacity, the moment you lose the very thing that distinguishes you from everyone else, you die. Yet you still have birthdays and anniversaries, and you still go to church on Sunday, and you still show up for work on Monday. But you've lost you.
Yeah, you've lost you, and you're existing waiting to be buried. And many people in life die at an age different than the one they are buried on.
Yes.
The tragedy of life is not that people lack potential. The tragedy is, is that people go to the grave to bury their treasure and die poor rather than die empty. The best version of themselves never come out. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:7, he said, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course.
I kept the faith.
What do you mean, Paul? I didn't die with a storage full of treasure that never got used. I emptied myself. In fact, in verse 6, he says, I have offered all that I have to offer in the time of my departure to the end.
See, I believe that you're supposed to go to the grave Yeah, yeah.
Popular television stations back in my hometown have done some stories on my life and my work, and so have some magazine companies. And one magazine company recently asked me in an interview they did, they said, Rico, what would you want to be your legacy? What do you want to be known as? What do you want people to remember you by? And I thought for a few moments, and then I said, I want to be known as a brave thief. They said, please explain that. I said, well, so many people die without ever exploring the depths, the fullness, and the totality of what God has placed on the inside of them. They go to the grave with dreams that they never realized, with aspirations that they never satisfied. They go to the grave with poems that never got written, songs they never sang. They go to the grave with businesses they never started, with ideas that they never were able to interject into reality. And so therefore, in my view, the grave is the most richest or wealthiest place on the earth.
Yes.
Because so many people go there with the wealth of knowledge and wisdom and books and businesses that they never utilized. I said, I don't want that to be my story. I want it to be known that when I go to the grave, that I was that man—
Yeah.
That was able to look inside and discover my treasure, my good thing, and bring that out of me and bring it out of me, and I poured into humanity and I poured into people and poured into people over the years until when I go to the grave, I have nothing left for the grave. I went to the grave empty because I poured it all out in humanity. I said, that's what I mean when I say I want to be known as the Grave Thief. I robbed the grave of the substance I was born with.
That's right.
I deprived the grave.
In fact, it seems to me that that's what Jesus did when he came up out of the grave and then looked back at the grave and said, oh grave, where is your victory?
Oh death, where is your victory?
Where's your sin? In other words, you ain't got nothing on me.
Second Kings chapter two, verse nine tells us that when Elijah was ascended up to heaven, that his mantle came down and it was.
Caught by Elisha, and then Elisha carried the mantle of Elijah, and Elisha went around with the mantle of Elijah on his life performing miracles. However, 2 Kings 13:20 tells us that Elijah— Elisha died and was buried, and yet there was this man who was wounded in war.
They threw him as a dead man into this grave That happens to be Elijah's bones, and when the dead man touched Elijah's bones, he revived and resuscitated and got up and took off running. The paradigm of this particular situation is that Elijah passed on his mantle, his knowledge. His wisdom, his gift, his talent, and his anointing to the next generation, so that when he left, he left empty. But Elijah failed to do that. When he died, he didn't pass it on, so his gift, his talent, his mantle, and his anointing died and was buried with him. Wouldn't it be a sad story? For you to go to the grave. And one day when you rise up and meet God, God say to you, I gave you talents, I gave you gifts, I gave you anointings, I gave you greatness, I gave you power, I gave you mantle, I gave you charisma, I gave you uniqueness, I gave you creativity, I gave you authenticity. I gave you I gave you all this stuff that makes you who you are. I gave you everything that makes you so bad that nobody can ever duplicate, imitate, or eradicate what I've done in your life, but yet you went to the grave with it instead of using it to be a blessing to the kingdom and to humanity.
Next slide. Do not die like Elijah did. Do not go to the grave with your story being untold. Here's something that I want to leave you with as a thought: a man who lives for himself, when he dies, no one remembers him.
But a man who lives to empower others, when he dies, everyone misses him.
Why do we celebrate Dr. King all these years later? Because he lived for others. And we got streets named after him, we have a holiday named after him back in the States, because the life that he lived changed the course for other people.
And that's what a leader does.
A leader's life changes the course for other people.
I want to talk about stopping your way, because one of the most frustrating things that I have ever experienced in life, and I'm sure I've been talking to many of you in here, not all of you, one of the most frustrating things that I have ever experienced in my life is to know that I have the capacity and the potential to do better, but somehow I just couldn't figure out how to make that happen. Nothing frustrates me more than knowing that I deserve better and that I am better but can't figure out how to do better and live better so that I can have better.
That's it. That's frustrating to me. Here's something that I want to share with you.
You have the talent, you have the potential, you have the ideas, but something inside of you feels blocked.
No.
No, there is more in you, but you can't seem to bring it out. Your flow is stagnant because your well is blocked. Now, in Genesis chapter 26, verse 15 through 23, the Bible talks about how Abraham had dug some wells in the land, and these wells were used to feed his family, water his livestock, and to grow crops and vegetation.
But it had some enemies called the Philistines.
And Philistines, they were haters. Y'all use that word over here in the Bahamas?
Haters.
They were haters. They didn't want to see Abraham and his lineage of descendants prosper, so they took dirt and they clogged up the wells with dirt.
And then the Bible says Isaac dug new wells, and yet the enemy came back again and filled up those wells with dirt. Then he dug new wells, and then the enemy came back again and chided with him and fought with him over his wells, over his flow.
Can I say to you that there's a level of warfare that is going to be associated with the flow of your wells?
The enemy does not want you to operate in the capacity of your flow. The enemy does not want you to tap into what God has enrichedly deposited on the inside of you and let that flow out so that it can feed generations, so that it can give water to, to people who are thirsty. But yet You have to learn how to fight over what you possess on the inside, because the real battle in your life— when people say, oh, the devil is sure is busy, he fought me over everything that I had—
well, the devil doesn't fight you over your car, doesn't fight you over your food, your monies, and all this stuff that we say the devil fight us over.
It's really not, it's really not biblical. There's 2 things that the enemy will fight you over.
One is the Word of God. When one receives the Word, the enemy comes immediately to steal away the Word which is sown.
2, he'll fight you over the giftings and the callings of God over your life, and he works overtime to try to get you to feel like you are incapable and disqualified, and that you don't measure up, and that you don't amount up to what God has called you to do. He'll try to get you to pull the plug and to abort the process. The Bible says in Revelation 12 that when the woman got ready to give birth to a man-child that would rule the earth with a rod of iron, that the dragon stood right there at the birthing stool to devour the child as soon as it was born. Which means that the moment you have a flow, that you start giving birth to greatness, that's when you will find that it's in that infancy stage of your delivery that the enemy will fight you. It is at the point when you are trying to become and trying to go to the next level that the enemy will fight you. It is at the point where you're trying to create a flow in your life so that you can bless generations that the enemy will fight you.
Yeah.
He fight you over your gifts. He fight you over your word. He fight you over your prophecy. He fight you over your potentials. He fight you over your faith. He fight you over stuff that can move mountains. He fights you over stuff that can break up curses. He fights you over stuff that can change lives. He fight you over stuff that can resuscitate bones in the valley. He fight you over the stuff that can make a difference and change nations. Those are the things he fight you over. He fight you over your identity in God. He fights you over your greatness in the kingdom. He fights you over your flow. And so Isaac Isaac decided, since the enemy is going to fight me over my flow, then I need to fight back over my flow. And the Bible says that Isaac fought back over his flow. And so the 3rd time he dug this well, the enemy got tired of fighting against somebody he knew could fight him back.
All right.
The devil would try many of you over and over again because you've not yet stood up and rose up And your holiness bonus has caught him back. But the Bible says in James 4:7, if you resist him, he'll flee from you. He won't mess on someone or pick on somebody who will resist him. He fights people who will hide in a corner and say, Lord, keep the devil away from me. He'll fight you when you're afraid of him. But when you step in your leadership capacity, there's no time to be afraid. I'm not here, I'm not here to fight. Rise up and be all that God has called me to be.
Isaiah 12:3, therefore with joy— this is a leadership principle— therefore with joy she'll give you all water from the well of salvation. Take that word joy. This is a leadership principle, and that word joy translates In order to effectively operate in the capacity of a leader that you're called to be, you need to be passionate about what you do. And then wisdom dwells in the multitude of counsel. Safety dwells in the multitude of counsel. As a leader, you must always surround yourself with people who can advise you And the way that you should go. And when you're operating in a leadership capacity, sometimes your leader would advise you in a way that you don't want to go.
Right, right.
But you have to be willing to do today things that others won't do so that you can have tomorrow things that others won't have. Always be willing to aim for the top because it's the bottom that's overcrowded. Leaders don't aim for the bottom. Leaders aim for the top. Most people fail in life not because they aim too high and miss, but because they aim too low and hit.
Yeah, yeah.
Next slide. John 7:38 says that out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Yes.
Leadership is about operating in your flow. I teach preachers and teachers how to discover their flow, because anybody can get up and preach and get up and teach and do it stressed, stressed out, or do it under pressure. And not be comfortable, because they haven't learned their flow. There's a place where when you preach, you teach, you lead, and you direct whatever it is you do on your common— there's a place where you discover where your gifts and your talent meet together, and your courage creates a comfort zone so that when you do what you do, you flow in it, and it's not a struggle for you. I have spoken to crowds bigger than 5,000 people at a time, and people ask me, are you afraid to speak to large crowds? Absolutely not. Give me a microphone and a paycheck and leave the rest up to me.
Number 5.
Purpose. As a leader, you must discover your why. People who know their purpose operate with passion and direction. When you understand why you are here, your energy and focus and commitment increase. Here's the key idea: purpose produces power.
Yes.
Leaders become effective and passionate about what they do when they understand the purpose behind what they do. I've been called to change lives. I used to be, and my mother still is to this day, I used to be a very bashful, shy person, believe it or not. And I remember many, many years ago, this guy came up to me and I was incarcerated. I was in prison. I called it Bible college.
This guy came up to me, Bishop, and he said, you're a preacher.
And I look back, like, just like, who you talking to? He said, I'm talking to you. He said, you're a preacher. I said, no, I'm not.
He says, yes, you are.
I said, no, I'm not. I wasn't preaching at the time. Neither did I see myself as a preacher. And I haven't seen this guy— never saw that guy before that moment and never saw him after that moment. I like to think that God sent an angel into the jailhouse to come and let me know that I've been called and chosen by God. Then he said something to me that I wasn't aware of. He saw in me what I didn't see in myself. Can you, can you help me confirm this and look at the person sitting next to you and say, you, you have something in you that you may not be aware of. But when you understand your purpose, then your your gifts are always given to accommodate your purpose in life. Without a purpose, you don't need gifts. God gives you gifts to associate with your purpose. Now that I understand my purpose in life. I know how to operate in my gifts and flow with my gifts because I realize that my gifts is all lining up with my purpose.
Right.
Jesus understood his purpose, and when he stood before Pilate, Pilate trying to give Jesus this rundown, and Jesus says to Pilate, you're not taking my life from me, I'm laying my life down. It is for this end Was I born? It is for this purpose I came into the world. When you understand your purpose, your boss can't fire you.
When you understand your purpose, you'll never be unemployed.
When you understand your purpose, you'll never have to struggle. For finances, Jesus said it like this in John 15:16. He says, "You've not chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained you that you should go forth and bring forth fruit. And whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do." When you're operating your purpose, God says, "It's my job to supply your every need.
I'll open the door for you that no man can close.
I'll go before you and prepare the way." When you operate in your purpose, heaven supports you every day of the week. Next slide.
I want to talk to you about discovering your greatness. I think we have about three and a half hours left. You cannot bring out the best in yourself if you don't know yourself.
This is what I teach corporate leaders around the country. You have to get to know you.
Yes.
Don't spend and exhaust valuable time trying to figure out the person next to you and get to know what they have and what they present. You need to spend your time getting to know you, what you have, and what you possess. Because I assure you tonight, you have something on the inside of you you've not yet discovered.
Right, right.
I did a leadership training for the federal government in Tampa, Florida, and I had multiple agencies come to my leadership class, my workshop. And some of the people that were in my leadership workshop were on the verge of retiring from the federal government. But after I spoke and I talked about giving it all you've got and building and leaving a leadership legacy, some of the people stood up after my session and said, I was at a moment of retiring, but after hearing Rico Sharp, I realized I got too much living to do to retire.
That's true.
You have such a level of greatness and potential that still flows through your arteries that the moment you stop contemplating retirement and start contemplating, aspiring for greatness, you will receive a burst of energy and focus that will bring your destiny into spectrum. The reason you're not seeing things clearly right now is because you're not forwardly focused on the things that God can do. You're still being satisfied with the crumbs that fall from the master's table. But God said in Ephesians 3:20, I am able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think, but I can only do it through the power that is at work within you. You have to discover that power, that gift, that talent, that strength, that anointing, that faith, that invincibility, that tenacity that relies, that lives on the inside and resides on the inside. And the moment you do, God says, now I'll take what you have and I'll do exceedingly abundantly above all you can imagine or articulate, and I'll do it through the gift that you're ready to retire on.
Yes.
I've learned something about God. God gives you more when you're in motion pursuing after greatness than he does when you're sitting around contemplating retirement.
Wow.
He gives you more when you're in pursuit of purpose than he does when you're just sitting around trying to take life easy.
Here's a revelation that I want to share with you. 1 John 4:4. We've heard this scripture for years. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Now we know from the sources that this scripture means that greater is God, greater is the Holy Spirit that is on the inside of us than the enemy or the Antichrist or the spirit of Satan that is out there in the world.
Right?
We know the greater one lives on the inside of us. But let's stay off the surface tonight. Let's go a little deeper. How about I propose to you tonight that a revelation to the scripture is God saying to you that there is a greater you on the inside of you. There is a greater you On the inside of you. Say this with me: There's a greater me on the inside of me. Let me break it down for you. Can I break it down?
Say break it down.
Break it down.
So the you that exists today, that we can see today, is the you that we're looking at right now. Your husband, your wife, your mother, your father. You're an engineer, you're a psychologist, psychiatrist, you're a judge, you're a doctor, you're a pastor, you're a prophet, you're an evangelist, you're a teacher, you're this, you're that, and you're the other. And that's the you that we know and see today. That's the you we've been exposed to today. But Philippians 1:6 says, be confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work Within you, we'll perform it. We'll bring it to maturity. We'll perfect it. So now that means to me that God is saying there's a whole other you inside of you that God is working on that has not yet come forth, that the world has never known before, which means there's a greater husband on the inside of you.
There's a greater wife.
On the inside of you, there's a greater pastor.
There's a greater prophet. There's a greater judge. There's a greater mother.
There's a greater father on the inside of you. We know the you that you are today in the world.
What we don't know is the you that is in construction or under construction, or that is still being developed and matured. That God says, "I'm getting ready to introduce to the world so that the world can realize they don't know you." Like they think they know you.
Yeah, yeah.
Because you know that people are always trying to size you up, right? And and then figure out who you are and what your worth is and what your net worth is and what your value is based on the car you drive up in, the clothes you wear, the brand of clothes, who do your hair, and all these superficial things that people try to use to figure out who you are and what you have. But what they don't know is that they don't even. See the true you, because the true you is not who they see. It's not who they know. It's not who they think you are. There's a greater you on the inside that God says, "I'm about to release. I'm about to bring forth." And the world is going to experience a whole new you.
First John three and one.
Beloved, now we are sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be.
But behold, we shall see him as he is, for we shall be like him. Behold, now the world knoweth us not.
In other words, God is saying the world, people don't know you. Folk will look at me and say that, that there's nothing good going to happen in that boy's life.
He's a drug addict, he's a drug dealer, he's a criminal.
Nothing's good to him. He come out, it's like when they see me now They're like, who is this? Is that Rico Sharp? See, they knew the old me. What they didn't know is that if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things pass away. Behold, all things become new. Behold, I do a new thing, saith the Lord. And so I feel like God brought us together tonight so that he can begin to release the greater you, the new you. Say this to your neighbor, say, you don't know it like you think you know it. That's a balance.
And Ephesians 2:10 says that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. You're always evolving, and that's the thing about leadership. You're always evolving, you're always developing.
You become stronger, you become greater, you become wiser, You become smarter.
You become tougher. You become more durable. Your your level of influence grows in the earth, and the more you work on you, the more you focus on what you have on the inside, the more you bring out of you what's on the inside. Then you begin to discover that you're just like that character. Who at one stage of life crawled through the earth, being classified and categorized as the lowest class of the insect. That caterpillar was eating the dust from the beetle and from the ants and everything else that got left behind. But one day, that caterpillar took his focus off of everything around him. And who all got ahead of it, and who all left it. And it began to focus on the inside. And through that focus, that caterpillar began to build what we call a cocoon. And in that private space, that caterpillar discovered, I am not what I used to be.
Right, right.
I am not what they thought I was. to be. I do not have to crawl and eat dust for the rest of my life.
I can change.
I can transform. I can metamorphosize. I can evolve.
I can become. Yeah.
And through that thinking, it began to push out wings out of its back and experienced a transformation, so much so that when it came out of the cocoon and began to fly. The ant looked up and said, is that—
that can't be. The beetle said, it looks like that's the caterpillar, but what is it doing up there flying around with all these beautiful colors when I'm not back in the dust.
Amen.
And there are so many people around you that think there's nothing good that's going to come out of your life, nothing great is going to come out of your life. But if you keep focusing on you and build an internal focus and discover your greatness and discover your gifts and your talents and your calling and your purpose, you too will push wings out and you will begin to line up with wings of the eagle So that you can run and not get weary, walk and not faint. That's a promise from God. And if you don't believe it, go into your cocoon and watch God bring you out with more power, more grace, more virtue, more honor than what you ever thought you could have.
Yes, say this with me: I can do all things. I can do all things through Christ. I do need a time check. Can I get a time check? How much time do I have left?
4 hours.
Let's go to point 7.
Next slide.
Are y'all with me? Are y'all getting something out of this?
Now this is, this is one of my favorite passages of scripture, and I got to explain this one to you. Now Solomon, as we understand, was graced with a level of wisdom that is unparalleled to human race. God gave it to him on a level and a scale that man is just not born with. And Solomon said That I observe something through my capacity of wisdom. He said in verse ten, whatsoever thy hand finds to do, this is very relevant. This is related to your purpose. It's related to your assignment. This is related to your calling. This is related to the gift that you're discovering that. Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with all thy might.
So I call this one, give it all you've got. This is one of the things that I had to do.
I had to give— because I had to fight against so much just in order to, to really think that I'm somebody.
Yeah.
That God's going to use. He goes on to say, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave. How many of you know that?
Yes.
But verse 11 is the key verse that really ministered to me. I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, the battle is not to the strong, the bread is not given to the wise, nor yet favor to men of skill, right? But time and chance happens to them all. And here's the thing that really helped my understanding. What he's saying is that people win races, but the one who wins the race aren't necessarily the fastest one. People fight battles and win, but the one who fights the battles and win aren't necessarily the strongest one. People come up with different plans and ideas that brings wealth into their life, but they're not necessarily the smartest or the most wisest one. People have different levels of success, and it's not like they had the advantage over anyone else. God says, here's what happens when someone wins, when someone overcomes, when someone succeeds in life. It's not because they were better than anyone else. It's not because they had something that no one else had. It's because they realize that this is my time, this is my chance, this is my moment, and this is my opportunity to do something great with my life.
Many of you have allowed for opportunities to pass you by in life because you didn't realize that that opportunity was your time. Your moment, your chance to seize the moment and maximize that opportunity to produce the life that you want through the gifts and the talent that you have. I call that sleeping through your season. And year after year after year, we get to the beginning of the year January 1st, and we say this is our New Year resolution, and we go throughout the next 365 days reliving the same occurrences from the year before with nothing changing, nothing happening. And the reason why is because we're sleeping through our season. We're missing moments because we're not prepared to exercise our gifts, our talents, and our skills and bring out the best in us like we can when the moment Heaven is afforded to us, and therefore we get distracted, we go into a state of depression, we start getting upset, we start walking around with a spirit of self-defeat, we feel inadequate, we feel incapable, we feel like we just don't have what— have what it takes. And instead of us pursuing after our greatness, we trade our greatness for pom-poms so that we can become cheerleaders for others.
That's right.
who enter into their greatness, who are winning races and fighting battles and winning and doing things that we admire, when the truth is that not only could have been you, that was supposed to be you.
Yeah.
You have to give your best effort, and especially When the time is presented, you know the story about the man who was lame and Jesus walks up to him and says, "Do you want to be made whole?" And he doesn't even answer Jesus directly. He just starts complaining about how he has nobody to help him out and to pick him up, and how everybody else always beat him to the pool. And I'm so thankful that Jesus didn't get down on his level, but Jesus just cut to the chase and said, "Man, take up your bed and walk." In other words, stop making excuses about what you can't do because you got your eyes fixed on someone else. And realize that greater is he that is in me. Realize I can do all things through Christ. And realize this is my time and this is my moment, and I'm not going to let you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, or you cause me to sleep through my season and miss my moment. When God has said, "It's my time." Come on, tell somebody. You just gonna have to hate on me. You just gonna have to hate on me because I refuse to go to the grave for simply because I keep missing moments and opportunities. But the truth is.
I have one to take you. One person, this gentleman before, was interviewing me to come speak at his business. And he began to talk about everything that's required to be a speaker for their company. And he talked about how much money is on, you know, their payroll budget to pay a speaker and what the qualifications are. And he, amongst 3 other people, stopped and asked me, he said, Mr. Sharp, now that you know everything we're looking for, do you believe you have what it takes to deliver for us? I said to him, I not only have what it takes, I am who it takes.
Amen.
And I didn't smile. I let him know right then, you don't know who you're dealing with.
Can you look at somebody and tell them, you don't know who you're sitting next to? I not only have what it takes, I'm gonna say it, I not only have what it takes, I am who it takes to get the job done. You have to be willing to maximize your moment. Opportunities must be seized while they are present. Don't waste your potential by cruising in neutral to the grave.
Woo!
Nice.
Preparation meets opportunity, and time and chance comes to everyone, but only those who are prepared can capitalize on opportunity and maximize their moment. Years ago, probably about 20, 22, 23 years ago, And we can go to the next slide. This, this, uh, mass-producing book company called Yorkshire Publisher contacted me about 22, 23 years ago, and they said, Mr. Sharp, we've heard of your impact. This is 22 years ago. I was just a baby, just a boy, just starting to pastor. Just starting to build up a reputation, and they said, we want to fund a project with you to do 3 books. We'll cover 100% of the costs. All you have to do is just write the books, and we want the rights to the first 3 books. And I signed a contract with them, and at the time when I signed the contract, I wasn't really serious about it. I felt like I had too much going on because I'm traveling, preaching everywhere, pastoring multiple church locations, pastoring 3,000 people. I just didn't feel like I had time to devote to these books. And so what I did is I started the project, but I didn't finish it. I walked away from the project. These 3 book projects would have made millions of dollars on my behalf. And I walked away from it. And then sometime later in my life, I began to realize how I didn't seize the moment. I didn't maximize the moment. I didn't seize this opportunity that God afforded me. I didn't take advantage of the time and the chance. That's right. And I began to regret not taking advantage of that opportunity. I was able to contact this company here recently, as a matter of fact, and talk to them, and they remembered me and my influence and everything that's going on. They did the homework, you know, to get up to date with everything that's going on in my life, and they even made me a recent proposal saying, hey, we're still willing to do some work with you. How many of you know now you can bring it on? I'm going to seize this moment. I'm going to seize this opportunity.
Why?
Because I realize the opportunities are given by God so that you can come into your destiny and in the fullness of your purpose. You have to make sure that you don't let these moments pass you by.
Right.
Leadership is servanthood. Matthew 20:26. But it shall not be so among you. Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever would be leader among you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. To get is like a ransom for me. When people step into leadership responsibilities, leadership is not designed for people to serve you, bow down at your feet and kiss the ring and worship you and bring you tea and coffee in the morning and chicken for lunch. Leadership is designed for you to serve Other people, and so many people fail in business and fail in ministry because they don't understand the true essence of leadership. See, Jesus taught discipleship. John taught relationship. Luke taught stewardship. Paul taught leadership, and Paul. Teaches us by virtue of leadership that we ought to be examples unto the flock. We're examples to others. We lead by our example. In fact, one scripture says in sample instead of example, signifying that this is something. That you can learn how to do by watching me do it. And that's what leaders do. Jesus said to the people, pointing out the Pharisees and the Sadducees, he says, you see these folk over here? Don't do as they do. They'll tell you what to do, they won't show you how to do it. So do as they say, but not as they do. Because true leadership has very little to say but very much to do. If you want to learn true leadership, watch people who are operating from a position and a posture of humility that understand that serving others is what I'm called to do. I don't mind doing anything in the church that pastor asked me to do because I realized that's my calling as a leader. That's my calling. I was assistant pastor at this church that my wife and I helped start before we started our own personal ministry, and I would go up to the church and clean the toilets.
Yes.
And nobody knew about it.
Yes.
And the bathroom. And I would drive my little ride lawnmower from five miles away up to the church and cut the grass, and nobody knew about it. And I would be the church man to go pick people up off the street and bring them to the church, and nobody knew about it. And when other folks were saying you shouldn't be doing those things because you're in pastoral ministry, I had to reduce some folk and let them know this is how I'm developing.
Minority.
This is how I'm developing my capacity. So there's no job in the church that's too big for leaders. Jesus got down and washed the disciples' feet.
Peter said, you shouldn't be washing people's feet, Jesus. You see the poor and the cops and the college On that man's feet. Jesus says, "If I don't wash your feet, you don't have no part with me." Peter thought about it and said, "Hmm, well, not only wash my feet, but give me a shower. Give me a whole bath." So leadership gains its strength from servitude in the corporate world.
We call it servant leadership.
So when I talk to college executives and people in corporate America and I'm talking to them about leadership, I'm telling them something they don't want to hear because they feel like that when you climb the corporate ladder, the higher up you go, the less you have to do. But a good leader serves from the bottom up, which means you got to come out of that conference room from behind that desk And get out here and meet your entry-level employees and begin to talk to them about the things that they can accomplish in their lives by connecting to this corporation and show them what the vision is so that they can connect the dots and find where they fit in because that's where the corporation begins to prosper. That's where the production level begins to multiply. And it's the same way in your life. When you're serving your wives and serving your husbands And serving your children and serving your parents and serving the members of the church, that's where God says, I'll open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing.
Serving too creates some unity in the church that becomes a 3-strand cord that is not easy until they broke it. And so Psalms 133, verse 1 says, how perfect and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity. It is like the ointment or the oil that is poured upon the head of Aaron that runs down to the beard. The beard represents leadership. Head represents pastors or priests, the pastorship, but the beard represents the leadership.
That's right.
you.
When the oil runs down the head of the priest, because they have these long beards, the oil gets in that beard. That's God's way of saying, I'm anointing you for headship. But it doesn't stop there.
It runs down to the garment, all the way down to the skirts.
And the skirts represents the remaining people in the church.
And that's God's way of saying, I got you covered, because that's what a skirt is used for.
It's used for covering.
It's not originally used for style.
I know you women, when you dress up now, you trying to be stylish.
But a dress was not originally created for style.
It was created for a cover.
And that's God's way of saying, I got you covered.
The oil is flowing down to you too.
I got you covered. I'm anointing you too. So wherever you operate in the capacity of serving to the leadership, God says, I will cover you with the oil that is on your pastor's head, that is on the leader's head, because you are connected to the head and you're a part of the body. And when you begin to operate in this capacity, he said, that's where I command the blessing.
Amen.
That's where I command the blessing. The blessing flows when we're united and serving one another. And operating in the leadership ability that God has given to us. That's when the blessing comes down, and that's when everybody in the house gets blessed. Everybody in the house gets healed. Everybody get a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit. Everybody get fresh fire on their life. Everybody gets a fresh anointing on their life. Everyone gets a new upgraded testimony. Everyone get new doors open in their life. That's where God said, I'm going to bless everybody. How many of you want to be a part of that blessing, that corporate blessing? But the way you become a part of that is you get in where you fit in and you stay in where you get in, and you never let anyone disconnect you from the anointing or from your cycle. Because when you operate in leadership, you can only go higher And higher and higher and higher.
Amen.
I got folk— my wife and I got folk today that won't walk away from us.
They don't care what happens because they realize they are connected to good folk, just like you're sitting next to good folk.
And leadership is servanthood. And where you serve, God multiplies. So leadership is not about authority, recognition, or position. Leadership is about responsibility, accountability, and reliability.
Let's go to the next.
I got about 10 minutes left. Can I have 10 more minutes of your time?
Yeah, 10 more minutes and I get out of your way. Unless Pastor say keep going.
Next one, take ownership of who you are and where you are.
Take ownership. Listen, personal responsibility is important as a leader.
Own your life. The best version of you begins when excuses end. God hates excuses. God calls Moses.
He said, Moses, go to Pharaoh. Tell Pharaoh I said let my people go. Moses says, I would, I would, I would, but I have this excuse.
I have an impediment of speech. I have a stuttering.
Talk, and who who want to listen to me?
Come on.
And God rebuked Moses and said, "I said ain't no way he can talk." Since you like like you can't talk, you were talking fine just a few days ago.
When he chastised that Egyptian for killing the Hebrew boy, he understood you well.
Now all of a sudden you want to climb in your, in your cave and back up in your shell, and act like you got all of these disabilities that disenfranchises you from what I called you to do. Stop looking at your own strength and realize that through me you can do all things, because I provide the strength in the areas of your Take ownership of who you are and where you are, and realize that your destiny is calling you, and your destiny is not compromising with your excuses. Your destiny is not bowing to your excuses. Ownership infuses the power of leadership. If you do have some things that are in the way of in your life right now, that is prohibiting you from being able to operate at the capacity of your leadership ability, then you do need to go to God and you do need to tighten up in this area and do not allow for something that you can change to disqualify you from your purpose. personal greatness. Y'all didn't hear me, let me say it again. Do not allow for something that can disqualify you from your personal greatness to continue to coexist in your life. Tell yourself, I'm better than that. I'm better than that. And when you look at the thing that is holding you back, tell yourself, I'm better than this. I'm better than this. And then focus on what God has called you to, realizing that you have greatness on your life. Say this with me, I have greatness on my life. I have greatness on my life. So don't allow for your issues to deplete you of your virtue. Next slide. Leadership is influenced through example. Let no man despise thy youth, Paul teaches in terms of leadership, but be thou an example. This is what leaders do. Leaders are examples to the believers in words and conversation and faith and deeds and purity. Like we as leaders, we show folk how to walk it out, how to live this thing. We show folk how to be resilient. We show folk how to bounce back. We show folk how to overcome. We show folk how to take their licks and keep on ticking. In 1951, Thomas coined this expression, Thomas Watts called it taking a licking. And keep on ticking. Take your licking and keep on ticking. They wanted people to believe that they had the most durable watches in the world.
So they took their watch and they put it through a really strenuous process.
They beat it with a hammer, they threw it in a tub of water, and then they ran over it with a car.
And after all of that trauma, that watch still ticked.
And they call it the expression, take your licking and keep on ticking. Sometimes the enemy will hit you with a low blow. Life will hit you with a low blow. Sometimes Murphy's Law, which says what can go wrong will go wrong, will find a home in your life.
Right.
But regardless of all of that stuff, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16 says, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but not destroyed. We're cast down, we're beaten, we're treated like a junkyard dog. We have these moments in our lives where we feel that life is unfair, and I know about that. I want you to take a look at this example. I have right now a pretty crisp and fresh $20 bill in my hand. And this $20 bill is about to go through some trauma. I'm going to take it. I'm going to ball it up. I'm applying pressure to it. I'm going to treat it as if I don't recognize the value and the significance of it, right? So I'm going to pretend to spit on it. Then I'm going to throw it back. And then I'm going to kick it around. First Lady, don't, don't, don't think of my money when you throw it. I'm gonna kick it around like it has no value.
Then I'm gonna stomp on it. Then I'm gonna jump up and down with it.
And I'm just gonna act like it doesn't mean anything to me. And then I'm gonna walk off and abandon it. Now, after all that abuse, after all that trauma, this $20 bill Still has his value.
These $20 bills have been through hell and high water.
I've been treated like a junkyard dog and a backyard alley cat.
I've been abused, I've been refused, I've been misused, I've been left for dead, I've been abandoned, I've been divorced, I've been fired multiple times, I've gone through bankruptcy, I've had my car repo, I've had to borrow from Peter to pay Paul the money that I owe Timothy. I've had to go through all different seasons of darkness and been up and I've been down, I've been in and I've been out, I've been depressed, I've been angry, I've been frustrated, I've been shot, I've been on drugs, I've been abused, I've gone through all of these traumas in my life, but at the end of my story, I can gladly lift up my head to God and say, thank you, God, I'm still here. I'm still somebody. I've taken my licks and I've kept on ticking. I've gone through the storm, I've gone through the abuse, and I still maintain my value, and I retain my dignity and my integrity and my self-esteem. And I realize that no matter what I've been through, I'm only stronger now, I'm better now, I'm greater now from the things I've suffered. David said, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but after my affliction, I've learned how to keep your word.
Right.
Leaders go through all types of trauma and trials and tribulations and tests and temptation and tough times and difficult seasons and seasons of darkness and depravity and division and seasons where people are dying on them and exiting their life and coming in their life. Leaders go through seasons where people are treating them wrong and misunderstanding their character and misrepresenting who they are as a person. But leaders say that in spite of all of that, I'm still somebody in God. I'm still somebody in character. I'm still somebody in spirit.
Yes.
So no matter what you're going through in your life, no matter what has happened in your marriage, in your family, with your finances, or with your children, you are a leader that God has called, God has ordained, God has empowered, and he's given you the grace to change the world and to raise up nations and generations of people who will catch your mantle and take it to the next level.
Right.
I need you to believe in yourself, believe in God, and trust that God is going to do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or think. And do not quit, do not give up, do not die before your time, and do not go to the grave empty. Bring that business out of you, bring that, that company out of you, Bring that greatness out of you. Bring that dream out of you, that aspiration out of you, and go out there and make the world remember your name. Make the world remember your name. Make the world have to stand and salute you for being a gift to the body, a gift to the kingdom, and a gift Do not die before making your mark in this world. I don't care if you've fallen down. I don't care how many times you've fallen or how long you've been down. A just man, a just leader may fall 7 times, but he will find his strength to rise up again. Is there anybody that believes that you will rise again?
Let me close this because I'm going to stop right there, but let me just say this real quick. There is a passage of scripture in the book of Job, means a lot to me, and I believe it's Job chapter 8. It talks about a tree that was cut down. The Bible says when the tree is cut down in the forest and the stock dies in the ground, yet at the smell of water, it will rise again. What does that mean? That means when you've been reduced down to your lowest common denominator, you have nothing left that people seem to think that you can use to get back up in life. God says, yet at the smell of water—
They don't even have to give you a drink. Nobody has to give you anything.
God says at the smell of water, that tree will sprout again. Here's the thing about water. It dwells in the atmosphere. Water is a reviver, it is a resuscitator. When I was a young boy growing up in the country in Sanford, my grandmother had this little well and it came out of the ground. It had this Old Rusty Handle on it.
And deep down inside of that well, there was some water. And in order to get the water out of that well, you had to pour water into the well. They had to prime the pump.
Anybody know what I'm talking about?
Yeah. You had to prime it. And then after a while, you pour some more water in it, and the pump would spit up a little water.
You would hear the, the gurgitating of it.
And you pour a little bit more water, you pump it some more. And eventually that water will begin to flow.
God says you don't even have to have anybody pouring water into you if you can just have enough faith and enough trust in God to lift your nose up in the atmosphere.
God says, I hid some water in the atmosphere just for you so that at the time when everybody thinks it's over for you and yet you're ready to rebound and bounce back, just lift your head up and just begin to sniff the water out the atmosphere. Because God says that is enough to cause for your limbs to be able to grow again, so that you can produce fruit on a level that nobody would ever imagine that you can do.
And when you know that life has cut you down, but God says it's not over, lift up your head, for your redemption draws nigh.
David said, "I will lift up my head to." the hills from what's come from my head. You have a soul of water in you, and I come tonight to tell you to lift up your head.
All right.
I want to give you a drink so that out of your belly, out of your spirit, can flow rivers of living water. In respect for time, we have on our program tonight a Q&A. So we're going to stop here and do a Q&A. So if anybody would like to ask me some questions, this is what this time is dedicated for. And don't everybody speak at the same time. You have questions for Rico Sharp? this is your opportunity to ask me questions. I was in a meeting with, uh, um, Dr. Mike Murdock, and he, he said in this meeting, he said, how can— you know, when he finished ministry, he said, how can y'all let me come all the way here to Orlando, Florida, and be in your presence and you not have any questions for me. He said, when you have a man that walks in the depths of wisdom and revelation that I walk in, you should want to know how I'm doing what I'm doing, or what it is I did to get to where I am.
That's true.
Because people perish not because of what they possess, but because of what they do not possess. People perish for a lack of knowledge. I tell people, folk who don't like to read have to depend upon those who do. People who don't ask questions leave with no answers.
Mm-hmm.
I've taken time tonight to give you answers, but if you have personal questions that fits into a certain profile of your life, and you would like for me to elaborate on what my advice to you would be, that's what this time is for. So let's hit the reset button, and I ask if anybody have any questions for Rico Sharp.
Yes, ma'am.
Good night, everyone.
I heard you said earlier about 33 years ago was when you had your turning point. You were in a dark place in your life. So my question for you is, what was the first thing that you did other than Surrender yourself to God and say, look, I need to make this change. What was the first step that you would have done after initially, um, realizing that you needed to make that change?
I got tired of being tired and sick of being sick. I got tired of reliving the same occurrences in life. I was like the Israelites going around that same mountain over and over and over again, and I just didn't want to live that way anymore. Before you can make any drastic change or transformation in your life, you have to get fed up with being where you are, because nothing changes until you change. Nothing happens until you're ready to have it. And so I just looked at myself and said, this is not who I am. I'm tired of being in this predicament. I'm tired of throwing my life away. I'm tired of letting the devil run, run over me. I'm tired of allowing for life to pass me by, and I'm still stuck on the outside of where I belong. So once I got tired of being tired and sick of being sick and fed up with being fed up, I started searching for answers, for solutions, for a change. That's a very good question because many of you want different and want better, but you've not made the commitment To apply the discipline to get better. Better doesn't just happen because you want it. Better happens because you demand it. But in order for you to set the demand to operate in the discipline, you got to be fed up with being where you are. My wife used to tell me back in those days, "You love going to jail." And I looked at her and said, woman, you crazy. And I didn't understand why she used to say that. You remember she used to tell me that? I didn't understand why she used to say that because we were married back in my dumb days with me going in and out of jail. But sitting in jail, I realized why she said that. She said that because I kept doing the things that put me in there. I didn't make any changes. And somebody who'd been locked up 19 times, you would think— I would think I must love going to jail. Because why else would I go 19 times? But it wasn't until I got tired of living that life that I decided to change who I am.
So further that answer for me, um, okay, after you came to that realization, did you— let me give an example— did you first take a pad and make notes and say, okay, I'm going to start here, I'm going to find a job, or I'm going to, um, go to a character-based class? So that's what I wanted to know. Yeah, you came to the realization, you went before God, you said you wanted to make this change. What was that initial step after that?
Proverbs 29:18, without a vision people perish. I had to be able to visualize myself through the eyes of God and see what I can have, what I can accomplish, what I can become, what I can do. Uh, God says in 1 Chronicles So, 16:9, man sees not as I see. God says, I look at the heart, man looks at the outward appearance. So I realized that I needed to borrow God's perspective and vision of myself so I could see myself the way he sees me. David said we're fearfully and wonderfully made, right? Yes. And so when I began to see myself the way God saw me, then I got a vision not only for what I can do in life, but more importantly, who I am in this life. And then I began to realize that I can do better because I am better. And so I start implementing plans and steps and principles and guidelines and buffers in my life that would give me the opportunity to have better structure that would be more positive and productive so that I wouldn't just be throwing away my time, dispersing it in the streets, but really utilizing my time as an investment into myself.
So you made a structured plan, like I like to think of it as a digital plan.
I created a day-by-day structured plan for how I would live, and I dedicated 12, 13, 14 hours a day. I'm self-educated, by the way. I dropped out school in the 9th grade when I went to the street life. And when I was in prison and I finally decided to give my life to God, I dedicated 12, 13 hours every day. I bought an encyclopedia, dictionary, almanac, concordance, Bibles, and many self-study textbooks. And I started reading and learning words from the dictionary and memorizing scriptures and chapters out of the Bible and learning things about him. Learning things about people, learning things about myself, about God, and that's how I was able to really renew my mind and change my life. And so that habit of memorizing scriptures and learning words from the dictionary, learning things out of the almanac, allowed me to become self-educated. So much so that when I go in colleges and teach people with degrees, every now and then I'll let them know I dropped out of high school. I don't even have a degree, but yet those of you who have degrees sitting here listening to me train you about how to be the best version of yourself. It's the same thing Jesus did when he sat there. He asked the doctors of the law questions that they couldn't answer, and he answered questions that they asked. Because when you invest the word of God and the wisdom of God in into your life, you develop an uncommon wealth of wisdom that allows for you, as God said, I'll use the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.
Yes.
Good night, everybody.
Um, great presentation.
Yes, sir.
My name is Jamal Boyle.
Nice to meet you.
I have a question for you. With the rise of Mental health challenges on the rise. We have a lot of young men who are challenged of finding their identity. What are some of the steps that you would suggest or advise for men to take in finding out who they are in terms of mental health circumstances in their life? Yeah, I like that. Yeah, we have a high percentage of young men who are growing up in separated homes where the father is not present.
Yeah, yeah.
And so a lot of young men, um, they are introduced or they have to learn how to become young men on their own or from society, and this results in health challenges. Anxiety, overwhelmness, and so forth.
Sir.
What are some of the things that you would advise me to tell other young men? I have 2 sons. What would you advise me?
First thing, in the African-American community, we're dealing with the curse of fatherlessness. Uh, we're everywhere except where we need to be. We're in jail, we're in prison, we're on the street corners, we're in the Tompkins bars. We're in the strip club. We're in the gentlemen's house. We're everywhere except at home, in church, leading the way. And because of that, we, we created a generational dysfunction where our sons are being born and raised without having a father in their life to present to them a role model as to how a man is supposed to live. And we thank God for mothers who have to be both the mother and the father to the best of their ability, but the curse can only be broken when the father takes his responsible place back in the life of his son. I was raised without my dad in my life. I know what that feels like. And in fact, not only was I raised without my dad in my life, but my mother was 15 with 3 kids.
15?
With 3 kids. And I saw the challenge of how tough and difficult it is for a mother to try to raise children on her own. My mom did all she could to try to compensate for the gap, but she couldn't do it. And what I discovered is that I had to become what I never had. That's what you have to see, and every other man have to see, who didn't have a father to become that example. I had to learn how to be what was never lived out before me. And so I drew from my pain, I drew from the emptiness and the vacuum of my life where my father was not there, and I learned how to turn my pain into my gain and the thing that I didn't have into what I wanted to become so that my sons would not experience what it feels like feels like sitting in the backseat of a police car. And so I started focusing on how to be a father, how to be a role model, how to be a leader to my son. And then I started doing the things with my son that I always wished my father would have done for me. And I made a commitment to myself that I would never abandon my children, but I'll always be there for them, to show them that they do have a father that will break the curse. So I say to you, continue to get in where you fit in and understand the impact that you bring and do for your kids and for other kids what you never received from your father, because not only are you breaking the curse, but you're creating the corporate blessing that will fall upon the family lineage. That would drive away everything that the enemy has tried to corrupt in your DNA, you know, your bloodline from your forefathers. And so you just have to stay there because this isn't something that's going to happen overnight. You got to stay in that particular place of being all things to your kids and let them see that this is the root that we're building. We're establishing this as a foundation. We're always there for our kids, and then gradually you will see this trend turn around. Your children will start duplicating your actions. Your children will see themselves in your image, and your children will want in their heart to be all that you are to them. And you will begin to see yourself thrown or branded into the lives of your children.
That's what I see.
I have a question.
So you mentioned that leaders discover, develop, define, and draw out people's potential. How can an organization ensure that leaders Intentionally build a system that does this consistently for large numbers of people.
How can an organization do this consistently for large people? So in the United States, we had— until Mr. Trump came along— we had what we call a DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion. inclusion. And the corporations were pretty much— they were encouraged to establish this DEI principle in the workplace. And that principle is that we now create a culture where everyone, people of different ethnic groups, ethnic groups and ethnicities, would have the opportunity to sit the table in the boardroom and cast their ideas and their particular perspectives and gifts and talents into the equation of principles that will govern the workplace. And that allows for everybody to be able to contribute to the success of the workplace. The best thing corporate leaders can do— CEOs, CFOs, and those who are presidents and vice presidents of corporations, the best thing they can do is bring those who have been rejected and have been the outcasts and left out on the outside, bring them to the table and give them a seat at the table and let them express what's important to them, what they want from their company, and that will make them feel like they are a viable part of of that corporation. And when you make people feel like they belong and like they are wanted and that they have something to offer, you bring out the best in them and you get them to make a self-commitment by doing that, that they will give everything they have to give to that corporation. And that's the best way across the board that you can draw out of people the gifts and the talent that is on the inside of You got to make them feel like they belong here. And even if they're on the entry-level stage of an employee or have been in the corporation for 20 years, when you give them a seat at the table, they'll give you all they have to give. And that's what I share with corporations, and that's what DEI is all about.
All right, so I have just one more question. So you went from the incarcerated version of you moving into your highest self, and here you are today. What was the mindset shift that you had that caused you to pause and pivot?
I think for me, I was, I was raised poor.
Very poor.
At one point, our toilet was a 5-gallon bucket when living with my mother. I always had this desire to, to do better so that I could provide a better life for my mother and my brother. And when I started realizing that there are opportunities that I could take advantage of That would change the livelihood of my family. I took that to heart and made that my motivation and my zeal. And I stopped looking at what life could do for me and started focusing on what I can do for others. Then when I got married, then I realized I needed to bring the same mindset to my household and afford a life for my wife and my family, my kids. That I felt like we should be able to have. And as I began to focus on not what I could do for me, but what I could do for others, which is the very principle of leadership, that was the mind shift that where God said, now I can trust you with prosperity, with wealth, because you realize it's not about you. David made a statement in Psalms 23, I believe it's verse 6, He said, my cup runs over. He didn't say God fills my cup. He said it runs over. And the reason God runs the cup over or overflows the cup is because what's in the container is for you. What runs over is for those around you. If you think that what runs That's right. If you think that all that comes forward is for you, then God can't not only overflow your cup, he can't even fill your cup. But when you realize you are blessed to be a blessing and you're called to bless others, then God can do exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think. And that had to become my mindset. That was the turning point. I had to stop being selfish and self-centered and stop living for Rico Sharp and start living for that woman right there. Good night, everyone.
Okay, I have a question.
Yes.
When did you accept or realize that your identity in Christ?
When did I accept or realize what in Christ?
Your identity.
My identity in Christ? Well, it initially began when I was in prison, but those were the early stages. Those were the infant stage of my personal and interpersonal discovery. When I came home from prison and I started going to church and getting drug dealers and drug addicts off the street, and our ministry started growing and We developed, we bought this property, and we established a homeless facility for homeless people and for ex-offenders, and we would minister to them. That's when I began to realize that God had given me the position to be not just a person who experienced personal change, but someone who may help others to experience personal change, professional change, interpersonal change, spiritual change, psychological change. changed, intellectual change, and that's when I really began to realize that I have a whole new identity. I'm not in this world just to see what I can do for me, I'm in this world to do things for others. And when I realized that I'm a world changer, a trailblazer, I began to think like one. As a man, think of Proverbs 23:4. As a man thinketh and his heart, so is he. My mentality creates my reality. We think a certain way and we live that way. And so my mindset shifted, my thought life changed, and I began to realize again that it's not about me, it's about the people God had called me to serve. And so now when I go into jails, when I go into prisons, When I go into colleges, when I go into corporations, when I go into state government, city government, county government, organizations to speak, I'm not going in for me. I'm going in for them. And from that time when I first realized that to this day, my mindset is still the same. And I get opportunities to go speak in places most people won't go. Like I've been at a prison About a month ago, I think it was, uh, back in Florida, surrounded by people who got life sentences, death row sentences, and would never get out. And I'm in the room with them with no security guard, with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of men, and I'm speaking to them on the same topic, bringing out the best in you. And when I get these calls to go and do these things, it's not about me, it's about them. And so my commitment to God, the way I think, is that like Jeremiah or Isaiah, you can send me, I'll go. I'm still going. I don't care if it's across the pond or if it's in Nigeria. I got an opportunity, I got a call from some people in Nigeria saying, would you come over and speak for us? It doesn't matter where it is, I'll go because I really I'm not going for me, I'm going for them. And that has always been my mindset, and here I am 35 years later, still my mindset.
Yes, ma'am.
For recording purposes, that's what you can like. Yes, leaders are supposed when they see your potential, they supposed to pull it up.
Yes. Sometimes you know your potential as well. You have a passion for something, but some leaders suppress you whereby you cannot you know exert the passion that you want to do in the organization. So how do you deal with that? What's your advice on that?
Okay, I missed something you said. Ask me the question one more time. I just want to make sure I hear you, please.
Okay. Leaders are supposed to pull up their potential. Sometimes we recognize our passion, our potential, what we can do, but then the organization is See your potential, but they suppress it.
Yes, that's a very good question.
How do you handle those?
So that's a very good question. She said when you have this passion and potential to do great things and you work for an organization that suppresses that, how do you deal with that? So the Bible gives a very exclusive answer to that. The Bible says whatsoever you do, do it as unto the Lord and not as unto man. God sees your gift and your passion to want to use your gift on your job. And even though man will suppress you and try to not give you the opportunity to be able to use your gift, because they have to pay you according to your gift, you have to continue focusing on, Lord, every day I rise, I'm rising for you. When I go to work, I'm going for you. When I work on my job, I'm doing it as unto you. And in doing so, God promises that he'll open the door for you. Where a lot of people go wrong is that they, they live to serve and please man— their bosses, their employers, their managers, their supervisors— instead of doing what they do to please God. If you do it to please man, the Bible says you'll have man's reward. But if you do it as unto the Lord, then God will find himself a way to reward you. Yes. So when you go to work, don't go for them.
Right.
When you do what you do, don't do it for them. You know they don't appreciate you. You know they don't want to recognize and identify your greatness, but God will. And if you continue to focus on doing it for God, God God will make you a Joseph in the land of Egypt, and at some point Pharaoh is going to find himself in a situation where he will need your gift and your talent to give him clarity about the dream that he had, and then your gift will make room for you and bring you before Pharaoh.
Keep on keeping on.
Yes.
Good night. My question is, how how did you find the courage? How did you find the courage to step out of? How do you overcome your safeness, that feeling of being safe in a particular place in your life, and overcome your fear of walking into your potential?
That's a very good question. In fact, one of the points that I didn't get to was on courage. Joshua 1:8, chapter 1, tells us to be courageous, right? God gives us this certain level of courage. Now courage doesn't necessarily— courage is not the absence or the abstinence of fear. Courage simply means I see and I know what is stacked against me, but I believe greater is he that is in me. What produces courage is confidence. Confidence in God and then confidence in yourself. What a lot of people don't realize is that God has no problem with you being confident in yourself. Be confident in this very thing. When the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that I can do all things through Christ— I is the personal pronoun, right? It signifies the person at hand. God is saying, have the mindset and the confidence that you can do whatever it is you are called to do. Romans 8:28, all things are going to work together for my good. And verse 31, God before me, who can be against me? And Isaiah 54:17, no weapon formed shall prosper. And Isaiah 59:19, God will Go before me and, and he will scatter the enemy, basically. When you think about these things and that there is more for you than against you, your confidence in God becomes a confidence in you, and that's where your courage comes from. You know who called you, you know who assigned you, you know who appointed you, you know who anointed you, and that's where your confidence Confidence comes from, and out of new confidence comes new courage. I got the courage to step out and pursue my destiny, pursue my dreams, and pursue my vision because I had confidence in me, but more importantly, confidence in God that he which has begun this good work in me would perform it, and that God would go before me to prepare the way.
That's right.
So I'm a word man. I put the scriptures together to give me the support that I needed, and I started saying to myself what God said about me. And as my confidence level rose, my courage level rose, and then I started going after what I believe I can have. I have this saying that I do every time I Going to church, every time I'm speaking, I do professions of faith.
I'm big on that.
My wife can tell you. I started this about thirty years ago. Here's the saying that every Sunday morning we do at our church: I have people hold up their Bibles, and I say, repeat after me: This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I can have what it says I can have. I can do what it says I can do. I can live as it says. can live. Today I open my heart and my mind, my soul and my spirit to receive God's holy word. For faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. With my faith I will please my God. As a result of my faith, my God will please me. That profession of faith came from my confidence, and out of that comes my courage. The reason people are not courageous is because they're not confident. If you know that you not only have what it takes, but you are What it takes, but you'll go after your dream and you'll get the bacon and bring it home. So I would say to you, just work on your confidence and let your courage be a reflection of your confidence.
How what advice would you give? Someone who's holding on to their past.
Who's holding on to their past?
Yeah.
Yeah. How, how good is it— are you with driving down the road looking in the rear mirror? How good are you at doing that? Not that good, right? So the little rear mirror that's on your windshield is about this big around, right? The windshield is about this big right here. Why is that? Because the automobile manufacturer want you to focus on where you're going and what's in front of you, not what's behind you. Paul said in Philippians chapter 3, verse 13, not as though I had already obtained, you know, I'm already perfect, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind me and reaching forth to those things which are before me. Wherever you're Where your focus is, that's where you're going. If you focus on your past, you will relive your past. If you focus on your future, you will relive— you will live your future. If you focus on your past, you relive your history. If you focus on your future, you will live your destiny. So my advice to you is to make up your mind where you want to go from this point on, right? There's nothing behind you. What's in front of you?
What's in front of you. Yes.
Before I ask the question, I want to say it was an excellent presentation.
Thank you very much.
I have a question concerning persons who have retired. Speak to persons in the room who have retired And think that's it, and then life is on cruise control. Yeah.
Speak to that tonight. Yeah, that's a very good point. So, so there are a lot of people who have reached a certain age and feel like that the— their best years are behind them. You have to have a conversation with God. You need to have a conversation with God because God can do more with less than what you can do with more. In fact, Abraham and Sarah didn't even enter into their promise until they was 190 years of age. God didn't even manifest their greater story in life until they were at an age where most people retired. God doesn't operate the way man operates. God can do more with the last 10 years of your life life than what you've done the first 70 years.
Amen.
Amen.
You have to allow for yourself to be always be open for God to do innovative things in your life. I say to people when I go with different arenas to speak that we need tomorrow thinkers in today's world. And what I mean by that is we need people who can calculate ahead of time and understand that there are some creative concepts that God can give you that would change the course of how we live our lives. Like Steve Jobs, for example, with the iPhone. When you come to a place where you feel like you've retired in life and that you don't have much that aspires or inspires you, that you become inspired or motivated to accomplish, then you're saying to God that you can't do much with what I have left. In the book of Ezekiel, I believe it's around chapter 39, the Bible talks about a cluster of grapes that have been pressed. You know, they make wine from grapes. Well, many, many years ago in biblical days, they made wine by stepping on the grapes. They were crushing grapes. Under their feet, and they would get the juice, and they would use the juice to make the wine, and then they would throw the skin away. But one day God comes along and he said, hold on for a minute, do not throw away the skin because there's still a blessing in it. To me, that's God's way of saying when people look at the remaining Part, the fragment, the particles of their life, and feel like they don't have much left to offer, and they just want to go in cruise control, go in neutral, because they feel like they've given the world the best of them. God says, "Hold up, wait a minute. There's still a blessing that I can draw out of your life. I need you to not go into a state of." retirement, but more so just allow for me to use the years you have left, because I can take those years you have left and restore unto you.
This is something I realized about God.
Let me share this with you real quick. This is a revelation God gave me. The Bible says he'll restore unto you the years that the cankerworm and the palmerworm and the locust have eaten, right? So we've thrown away a lot of years in darkness, in sin, serving the devil, running the streets, doing what we did, right? And then we come to God. And so you look at the lifespan of a man, and a man, you know, may say, well, if I get to see 80, I'm good. If I get to see 90, I'm good, because I've thrown away a lot of years to the streets or to my past or to sin.
God says, if you allow me, I will restore unto you the years that came to ruin, to pop them on, and the Lord In other words, I go into the back end of your life that you threw away, those 10, 15, 20 years you threw away, and I clip them off from the back end. And then I'll walk around to the front end of your life and I'll sew them on the front end so that the 10, 15, 20 years you threw away, I'll extend your life, Hezekiah, and I'll add 10 years, 15, 20 years to your life so that you can run on and and see what the end is going to be. But in order for God to do that, you got to be willing to come out of retirement and say, God, I'm still an asset to the kingdom. I'm still the arrow in the hand of the mighty hunter. I still got something left to offer. I, I may be crushed, but my skin still have a blessing in it. And if you think like Thank you.
Then you think how God thinks, because God does more with little. All he needs to feed 5,000 is 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread, and he can create a residual of 12 baskets full of leftovers. And then he said, I called you when you're in your elderly stage because you're wise, you know the ways You dream dreams and you see visions, and you teach others the way. Very good point.
One more question, and then that is it.
Hi again, everyone. I'm and I'm Pastor Sharp. But first off, I just want to say that I truly enjoyed the session today.
Thank you, sir.
So my question is. For the young men and women that are struggling to find their purpose in life, what do you suggest? Like, what steps do you think we should take to find said purpose? Yeah, so that's a very good question. Um, the best person to help you to discover what your purpose is in life obviously is the God who made you. Because in Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 5, God said to Jeremiah while he was just a young man, he said, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you went forth, I ordained you to be a prophet. We believe in life after death, but I want to introduce to you life before birth, before we were ever Yes. Before we were a physical human being, before we were in embryonic form, we were in all spirit form, locked up inside of God. So was Adam and Eve. God formed the body and he blew— he released from his spirit Adam's soul, or Adam's spirit, into his body. And when Adam's spirit came in contact with Adam's body, Adam became a living soul. And then God began to talk to Adam about what his assignment would be. No one knows better what you were created for than God himself. And God says in Jeremiah 29:11, I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. And then in chapter 33, verse 3, he said, if you call unto me, I will answer you. And I will show you great and mighty things that thou knowest not. Then 1 Corinthians 2:9, he said, your eyes have not seen, neither have your ears heard the things that I have prepared for you because you love me, but I'll reveal them unto you by my Spirit. I got my revelation from God, but I had to spend private time Matthew 6:6 says, but thou, when thou prayest, enter into your closet, and when you have closed the door behind you, pray to your Father which is in secret, and your Father who seeth and heareth in secret will reward you openly. Public manifestation comes from a private incubation when you are locked up in the presence of God. If you really want to know what your purpose and calling is, God reveals it to you. Now, there are times when he will raise up the people and give them a prophetic utterance, a prophetic declaration, and speak a word of prophecy into your life concerning what he has called you to do. Then going back to some of the things I've shared tonight, there are leaders can look into your life and see into you certain things that God has developed or wants to develop on the inside of you. But never allow for another human being who can operate in error to be the defining voice that reveals to you what your call of God is, because there are a whole lot of folk that are operating not by the Spirit of Truth.
That's Truth, right.
but by the spirit of error in these day and times. And they will say something to you that lines up with their own personal ambition, and that will have you to go astray, operating in a capacity that God has not ordained or chosen you to. So I cannot ever personally advise anybody better than to go to God, because he's your ultimate source and And he's the one that created you for his glory, and he's the one that have given you gifts and talents and callings that lines up with his plan and his purpose for your life.
Amen. Amen.
All right, can I step out with the last question?
Let's see, let's see how engaging I'm right.
So I'm practicing.
And how do you know? Something else to say?
Comment?
Question?
So can you all please bear with me just for 5 more minutes?
Yes, yes.
So I get in trouble before I get hired at the pool?
I have a lot of time with active questions because I've been blessed to know Rico for about 2 years now. So him and I have a relationship and we talk quite frequently.
Every week.
We talk quite frequently, but I want to say like it was a really good session, but I expected that knowing you, knowing you the way I do. And I just wanted to let everyone know that Rico, since knowing Rico, he's been a real blessing in my life, and he's helped me in a lot of different aspects of my life.
And, uh, I'm truly blessed to know him.
And that's what I wanted to share with you guys.
So call Pastor Rico, okay? Because I had. We're together.
It's the point.
Yeah, he's saying you should not tell him I went to the bathroom.
That's it.
And behind every good man, a good woman.
Come on.
It was cut perfectly, tailor-made for me, because there are times when I can do better than what I do, and she sees the greatness of my life, and she always reminds me of the greatness of my life and calls it the responsibility of my life, not just to my family but to the world. And I thank God for my lovely wife and all that she has done.
Thank you. All right, so ladies and gentlemen, let us stand and give honor where honor is due, and let us give it up for Clapster Rico and Katie Sharp! Yes, yes, that was an awesome, awesome, awesome So much food for God. You may be feeling so much food for God all in one night. And so I just want to say, I'm going to say to you like they said to me when I went to Wendy's, I'm gonna see you tomorrow. So I'm not gonna say good night or goodbye. I'm gonna say I'm gonna see you tomorrow. And I laugh because guess what? They sure did. And every day after that too. And so we do have some light refreshments, light, free. Please do not take, you know, a plate home for you, mommy, daddy, auntie, granny, uncle, and everybody else. Just your plate. All right, and so we do have some light refreshments in the back. The ladies are ready and prepared. Thank you all so much for coming. You should give yourselves a round of applause.
I did have some other slides. If they could put them up on the screen, people can take a picture of the ones that they talk about.
Okay.
That way they can still capture their information.
And you're still here to— you're still free to mix and mingle and eat. For those that know how to stay up late and still get up early, you are free to stay. But until tomorrow, same time, Same place. We will see you here in the will of the Lord at Faith National Church of God, where tomorrow we begin to talk about relationship. That's all for now.
I'll see you tomorrow.
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