Truth and Consequences

Blessings everyone and welcome back to our I teach. I'm teaching each and everybody about the user space of how you utilize not technology, but how you utilize it. Now if you catch that, you catch it. But today we are going into a new series where we're basically calling it truth and consequences. Are you accepting the integrity or are you accepting the ambition? Ambition can, you know, fuel, but is there really truly integrity behind it? And that's where the truth is. So today, as we go through our reflection and our devotion and strategy and approach, I want to start with the reflection. Reflecting the light of the sun, of the sun. Reflecting the light of Jesus. You are the light of the world. Are you reflecting the light of our Lord and Savior as far as the obedience, the discipline, the mercy, the patience, the joy, the grace? Are you instilling that? And so, of course, as we always hear, let your light so shine. The obedience, the discipline that is needed. So Matthew 5:14 is our reflection. You are the light of the world. Embrace it. So as we reflect, let's reflect on this situation. After I had a conflict with my mother, she finally agreed to meet with me more than 1 hour away from my home. But upon arriving, I discovered she left before I got there. In my anger, I wrote her a note, but I revised it after I felt God nudging me to respond in love. Respond in love. How do you— just reflecting on the time when we may have felt any type of anger, how do you respond? And this gives us the reflection on how to respond in love. After my mother read my revised message, she called me. You've changed, she said. God used my note to lead my mom to ask me about Jesus. And eventually receive him as her personal Savior. So sometimes we have to let our light shine when we say, okay, I'm feeling anger, but let me respond in love. How would Jesus have me— based off of what I know about Jesus, my Savior— save me from acting out in rage or anger? Help me to act out in love. So in Matthew 5, Jesus affirmed that his disciples are the light of the world. He said, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. And that's verse 16. As soon as we receive Christ as our Savior, we receive the power of the Holy Spirit. He transforms us so we can be radiant testimonies of God's truth and and love wherever we go. Not just where we want to go, but wherever we go, we can let our light shine. And that's God through in us, based off of having the knowledge and awareness of the Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, his obedience to the Father. It allows us to be obedient to the Father. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be joyful lights Of hope and peace who look more and more like Jesus every day. I would, you know, that is something to strive for, to look how, you know, when you wake up in the mirror, wake up in, in the morning and look in the mirror and you look at yourself, I'm like, okay, am I reflecting Jesus more and more every day? How do you calculate your growth? Are you being truthful and saying I'm growing in this moment, or I'm actually not growing? That's why we're calling this truth and consequences. But, and you know, ambition of integrity and truth over ambition. Every good thing we do then becomes an act of grateful worship. Which looks attractive to others and can be perceived as vibrant faith. Surrender to the Holy Spirit. We can give honor to the Father by reflecting the light of the Son, Jesus. What have you noticed? When have you noticed the light of Jesus shining through another person? I can. I have, and that's generally the people that I. I am more like just you know my eyes are a little bit more open to I can see Jesus through you, and I can or you know so yes, I have noticed the light of Jesus shining through another person. It may have been someone like a pastor of mine, a mentor, a friend. Even a stranger. How has someone else's good deeds prompted you to praise God? Their good deeds. Like, you could tell, like, okay, it's Jesus working in their obedience, their discipline, their, their acknowledgement of the, you know, the Son and the Father, and just operate in that spirit, keeping a good spirit around them. Jesus, please shine your vibrant light of love in and through my life so I can give honor to the Father and encourage others to put their trust in you. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. So the reflection on just being able to see Jesus in others, um, that's— it's beautiful. And like, you can actually say, okay, based off of their good deeds I can see Jesus in them, and I can give thanks to God for, you know, giving his Son, and also for that person, for me being able to see the light in them. He is the truth, he is the life, he is the way. So he is the light of the world, but so are we when we have Christ inside of us. So just thanking God that we can do that. You know, you have— you're gonna have different situations, but today just being able to reflect on that is powerful. So even on today, as far as our devotion, today is a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. And as we devote ourselves, just saying, you know, thank you. Don't mind my face. Thank you. Being able to say thank you. Um, what are you doing with the gift of today? Stop meditating on yesterday and remember every good and perfect gift come from above. God gives us blessings without expecting anything in return. What gift are you believing God for? Okay, I'm sorry, y'all, because the gift that he's given me today is a, uh, a gift of clarity, a gift of, um, insight, understanding. And no matter how what happened yesterday, it's just basically a A new understanding on how I can devote myself to different things, and what He has called me to devote myself to, and which I got a whole nother gift of. Okay, the impart impart imparting. That gift, to be able to receive that gift, for God to impart that gift to me is now having me to reflect on how can I devote to show back, you know, continue to honor God in everything that I do. So make most of every day by honoring God with your gifts. If he's imparting you with a gift, Use it every day. So our strategy and approach will be stronger for waiting. They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. Isaiah 40:31. Have you ever waited on someone? When you wait, you abdicate your ability to determine when something will happen. You are dependent on someone else. When we wait on God, it can be incredibly difficult. Truly waiting on him means we aren't solving situations on our own. We wholly place our dependence and trust in God's solution. In God's solution. I love that. I you know God's solutions. You know sometimes waiting can be hard, but When you really, like you say, I don't want it to be my own solution. I don't want it to be my way. I want it to be God's way. And you wait, it's like to see his solution. You know how you would have done things, but to wait on his plans to actually prevail and to see the outcome and say, wow, thank you, God. I can work, you know, worship on your word to just say Pay— just be patient and see based off of— see the promise in waiting. So to, you know, that dependence, like, God, I depend on you. I don't want to depend on me. I don't want to depend on anyone in this world. It's— I don't want— I don't want to depend on another person. I don't want to depend on myself. I don't want to depend on Anybody but solely you, and sometimes that may not be clear in everything that you do. But like okay, what is someone you know ever been waiting? And somebody like, what are you waiting for? And you really don't know. And it's okay. It's okay. Like I can use one of the examples that I seen today. I mean, not today, but this year. And it was— I purchased 2 books and I was thinking like, God, why am I purchasing 2 books? Didn't— that was the— that's as far as I questioned it because I'm like, okay. And then I, I was like, okay, let me go sit and wait patiently. And I was able to give those 2 books to 2 individuals and just Wait patiently, and when I when I receive you know more information from you know confirmation from God was like wow. Thank you, God. Because mind you, I purchase books all the time. Now do I get a chance to read them? No. But this person was able to read it. It was able to help them change their lives. So his his solution was so much better than mine. Mine was just basically purchasing something just to purchase it, um, or because I felt like I had the solution when necessarily— and not necessarily the solution, but when you patiently wait on God, like, okay, now I can see. But then if you do it your way and then God's solution is, is shown, I'm like, okay, well, this would have happened if I would have waited. When we all had those situations When we have to wait. So wait, because waiting is not natural. Waiting is not natural. We would much prefer to act, even at the risk of acting incorrectly, than to wait on God. Even if we waited a week or 20 years, his promise to us remains. If we persevere in waiting, we'll become stronger. So How do you persevere? Wait. Waiting is— waiting is beautiful. I really enjoy being able to have a sense of patience, and I pray, you know, I pray right now even as I'm speaking that I grow in my patience, that God's solutions— it'd be God's solutions, not my solutions or any other person's solutions. Heavenly solutions. We don't say that enough. Heavenly solutions, not earthly, you know, solutions, but heavenly solutions. If we persevere, we'll be, we'll be stronger. So what are you waiting for right now? I have a lot more to wait on. I'm waiting on God to really, you know, his solution to Some areas as far as where I need him to, you know, where I— and yeah, I need him to do things exceedingly abundantly more than ever I could think or imagine. So I'm going to patiently wait for God's solution to my biggest problem, which is— I would say my— if I had to think of one right now and say that biggest problem is clarity. So just think about like how if you think the sky is cloudy and you just have to wait patiently for a clear sky, you know. So that's, you know, there's some clouds that maybe, maybe a problem for me, and I could try to apply my own personal solutions, but God's solution, his heavenly solutions, is way better. So I will patiently wait on his solutions. So that is the strategy and approach on today, is waiting on God, waiting on God as we reflect on his gifts, like devote ourselves to, you know, showing honor back to God and reflecting on, you know, the light, reflecting on Jesus, just Taking time to just reflect. And I'm so, so thankful. I don't have it on me, but the book that I received today, it was just understanding God's will. That was— I would love to share. And, you know, we might be incorporating a new session or, you know, part into these I Teach Moments. But everybody, you are a user. You are a user. Everything that is here is— nothing is new. It is all resources. So you are— don't get confused as to what is truly the source. That's why we're reflecting on Jesus, the light. You are the light of the world. You are the resource to the source. That just resonated big time with me. But, um, so yes, be resourceful as far as letting your, your people see Jesus through you. And continue to, continue to stand firm in the faith and letting God's solution reign over yours. Thank you guys for joining. Be blessed. Don't choose stress.