Confessions

Good morning. Good morning, everybody. This is the day the Lord has made. And we will rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it. Because God is good. And he is worthy to be praised. Good morning. Happy Thursday. Everybody. And uh man, 
[snorts]
 I am I am geared up, ready to go.

Been up since 5:00 and getting it done, man. Rocking and rolling. Hearing what we need to be uh doing today and talking to to God about what's going on and and I'm just uh I'm just expecting for some amazing breakthroughs to take place in your life. He'll keep you in perfect peace.

Whose mind is stayed on him. And then that little last part that says, because he trusted in him. And that's the deal today. Do we trust in God? And I'm I'm going to go ahead and answer for you. Yes. We trust in God. We trust God for Jayden in the name of Jesus.

Your son. We call him well right now. In Jesus name. And we give praise for right now. Jayden and and Kyra and Mason. All of you. We thank God that the power of God's grace will show up in your time of need. Praise the Lord. Well, we send blessings to those of you in the International City, College Park, Georgia.

Uh I better start saying it right cuz people come at me from you from College Park. I'm like, no, no, no, no. I'm just joking. It's College, like a college, Park, Georgia. Amen. Um and uh we send blessings to those of you in Indiana. And uh we pray for anybody that's going through fear and anxiety.

We call you healed. We send the blessings to Loganville, Baltimore, Philadelphia. We say you are say you are blessed today in the name of Jesus. We send blessings to Conyers, Georgia. Um we send blessings to Rochester, New York. Uh Washington, D.C. Dallas, Texas. Houston, Texas. Lorraine, Ohio. The site of my very first convention was in a little Holiday Inn in Lorraine, Ohio.

We send blessings to you guys today. Cape Town, South Africa. Albany, New York. We send blessings to you today. Um we pray blessings over over individuals around the world. We play we pray blessings for uh people that are tied up in war. We pray for the peace of Israel.

We pray for the uh Palestine. We pray for Ukraine. We pray for Russia. I mean, you know, the will of God's going to be done and prophecy's going to come to pass, but still shouldn't stop us from praying and and and blessing people and letting God show up and do some amazing things.

And God's showing up on on both sides and opposition side. God shows up and he just does mighty, mighty works. And we're praying for these United States of America. We're praying for uh the whole Middle East. Uh we're praying for Ghana and Sudan. And uh we send blessings to those places this morning.

It's 
[snorts]
 just something about having a born-again believer to open his mouth and use it to bless. And I'm opening my mouth, you're opening your mouth and adding your faith with mine. And we're declaring the blessings of God are working. The blessing is working right now. Akron, Ohio. We send blessings your way.

Again in Kenya, we send blessings your way. We bind the devil right now. And uh in the name of Jesus, we thank you that the angels have been loosed. And God's commanded them to go forth >> 
[snorts]
 >> and to do mighty works in the earth. And uh praise God.

We send the blessings to to Thailand in Jesus name. And we we thank God for the blessings. Villa Rica, Georgia. Amarillo, Texas. Little Rock, Arkansas. We say you 
[snorts]
 guys are blessed in Jesus mighty name. Praise God. I I sense an anointing for this day. Hallelujah. I sense an anointing for this day.

That no matter what you may experience today, no matter 
[snorts]
 what news you may get today, God is for you and not against you. God is for you and not 
[snorts]
 against you. He is on your side. Praise God. He's the almighty God. I uh I flush with unmerited favor and love.

Praise God. And I just declare you're blessed. You're blessed in Albany. You are blessed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We send blessings your way. Praise God. All is well with you. Just receive that for your day today. You know, but some of you may have have already, you know, concluded your day.

Uh but yeah, we say that you're blessed right now. We send blessings to Portland, Oregon this morning. We thank God for the blessings of God working in in your life there. We send blessings to the fivefold ministry gifts. Or or what I I like to refer as the fourfold ministry gifts.

And we thank God that you're blessed in Jesus name to carry out what God tells you to do. Now is the time for us to hear from God. What a tragedy around the world. And I mean, war is it's it's it's it's bad. And uh I don't I don't you know, it's it's easy to sit back and watch the reports on news, but man, there people losing their lives.

And little kids are losing their lives. And you know, we're just praying the blessings. We pray the pray the blessings for Ethiopia right Ethiopia right now. Pray We got to pray for peace for for these United States of America. Praise God. We We pray for one another. I pray for you today.

That the wisdom of God will invade your life today. That you'll know what to do when you don't know what to do. Glory be to God. You'll know what to do when you don't know what to do. You know, I believe that the most powerful thing that we can have is the wisdom of God.

Knowing what to do when we don't know what to do. And that makes the difference in everything. So, I declare today will be a day that you'll know what to do when you don't know what to do. Praise God. I pray wisdom on everybody that's logged on right now.

Wisdom. Somebody said, well, it's afternoon where I am. Well, you might need to have some wisdom to deal with your marriage or wisdom to deal with your children or wisdom to to deal with your finances. Praise God. And I just thank God for wisdom in the name of Jesus.

I send it forth right now. And that the blessings of God will run you over. And the wisdom of God will be made available to all of you in the name of Jesus. Now, I command the sadness to leave. I command the depression to leave. I command the stress to leave.

You you go right now. No more sad days. No more bad days. No more depre No, no, no, no, no, no. As we mature, these things will have less and less effect on our emotions and on our lives. And I declare you have the wisdom of God. All is well.

You receive that today? All is well. Praise God. Amen. You know, 
[snorts]
 every now and then I I I want to share and and and and feel led to share um some some nuggets for 
[snorts]
 life. Um and especially I feel like everybody that's online has some level of leadership in your life.

Some level. Whether you're, you know, leading your your children or whether you're leading a business. Um or or maybe there may be some things that have come up and maybe you're a leader at your church. But some level of leadership I believe that uh is in a lot of people's lives.

And then some of you may be preparing for certain levels of leadership in your life. And and I want to share some things with you today that will kind of help you to do that. So, um I won't finish cuz there's a whole bunch. It's just Lord sitting and talking to me about this and I wanted to share it.

So, let's go ahead and get Psalms 91 equipped. And uh I declare your safety today. I declare your protection today. No demonic person will encounter or affect your life today. And listen, if it happens, you take authority over that devil in the name of Jesus. Say, not here.

Not today. And uh in the name of Jesus. Amen. Praise God. Repeat after me. I will dwell in the shelter of the most high God. I will find rest in the shadow of the almighty. God is my refuge and my fortress. You are my God and whom I trust and with great confidence in whom I will rely.

God will rescue me from 
[snorts]
 every trap and protect me from every disease. >> 
[snorts]
 >> I am covered and protected by his outstretched arms. God's faithful promises are my armor and my protection. I will not be afraid of the terrors of the night nor of the arrows that fly in the day.

I will not dread any disease that stalks in the darkness nor any disaster that strikes at midday because God is my refuge and the almighty God of my home. No evil can befall me and no plague can come near my dwelling. God has ordered his angels to guard defend and protect me and my house.

God's armies of heaven will keep me from falling. I will walk unharmed and kick anything that is evil from 
[snorts]
 my path because of God's love for me. I will call upon him. He will set me above all my troubles. He will deliver me from all my fears and he will honor me with his presence and power.

He will reward me with long life and he will show me his salvation. I am Psalms 91 equipped. All is well with me and my house in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Now is the time to stand on what you have just uh bathe yourself in over the last 3 years on the promises of Psalms 91 and believe God for Well, let me give you some words to live by.

Uh Listen to this very carefully. Now, you do with whatever you need to do with this, but I'm going to I'm going to give you a couple of points to help you out. Number one don't build images, build people. You know, I had to learn that as a pastor and as a leader I don't need to be building my image.

I need to be building people. And that can apply in in a lot of areas of our lives where if you're not careful, you will forget about that you're blessed to be a blessing and you'll end up focusing more on building your own image and less on building people.

Um whether you lead a business, whether you lead uh a group of employees, whether you're leading a group, whether you're as Christian people, our objective should always be how can I build people? Because if you can build people then God will build you. If you build people, God will build you.

So, I'm in this place right now in my life where I'm trying to empty myself in into whoever wants it. Um uh I want to empty what what what I've gone through, what the wisdom that I have, the things that I have understood and the things that I know uh so I can build people.

It seems to me even in the business world sometimes it's the people who are motivated to do stuff for people that appear to be the most successful. If you're getting in anything just to just to get paid but you're not building people, just yourself, you know, it'd be kind of interesting how that works.

So, let's think about that today. Secondly uh don't be afraid to share your story. Don't be afraid to share your story. Now, folks, these are these are our wisdom nuggets. I had I I don't believe I've ever shared not in in a public form like this. These are this is out of my personal uh notebook where God's speaking to me and I'm writing it down.

Don't be afraid to share your story. Transparency is the path to respect. Woo. Never forget that. Transparency is the path to respect. In other words being organic is in because, you know, we don't want to continue to perfect phoniness in our relationship with God or in our relationship with other people.

So, remember, you know our testimony is important but if you're shameful for what you did and all that, you got to realize you're not that same person. And most likely God gave you that testimony to share with somebody just like you. So, don't be afraid to share your story.

Transparency is the path to respect. You getting this? >> 
[snorts]
 >> Number three number three we must not compare. We This is something that comes up in re you know, as an individual, as a Christian, as a leader we it's so easy to compare and it becomes so dangerous 
[snorts]
 to compare.

There is just something that happens when you compare yourself with somebody and you you you kind of make them the um you know, I'm comparing myself, I look at them, I'm I'm impressed and then I make them my goal and then you're you're you're out to try to achieve whatever it takes to be like that person.

When we compare, we belittle the blessing of God in our life. When we compare, we belittle the assignment of God in our life. Let me see. You compare your car with somebody else's car, for example. All right, you have a Volkswagen um 1980 and somebody has a 2023 Mercedes.

And the thing you don't understand is by comparing your Volkswagen with their Mercedes you're belittling you're belittling the fact that your Volkswagen has never broke down on you. You are belittling the fact that your Volkswagen is dependable and faithful and God blessed you and the story behind how you got that Volkswagen.

When you compare, you belittle the blessing of God in your life. And you just have to pause and say, "Listen, God's been good to me." You got to look at your little little little apartment or condo and say, "God blessed me with this." And and and comparing will cause you to step away from remembrance of what God has already done.

Uh amen. Now, some of these things will hit each of you differently, but I I really 
[snorts]
 felt led to to to do this. Number four This is mostly for people in the ministry or people who work in the church, but I think this will bless you. Seek church health instead of church growth.

Seek church health instead of church growth. I'll never forget when Lord spoke that to me. He's like, "Dude." Because, you know, if you start comparing then you you start trying to seek church growth but you're not seeking church health. It it's the difference between something that's swelling and something that's growing.

I mean, if you're trying to put on muscle, you want to grow muscle. You don't want to have a swelling cuz that means there's an injury somewhere. There's inflammation somewhere. >> 
[snorts]
 >> Um if you seek church health then because it's healthy, it will automatically begin to grow. And uh we're living in a very interesting um time where, you know, as leaders, we got to be careful not to you know play these little church games and and and step off the course that God has us on.

I mean, whatever you're experiencing, big or little, you got to you got to really thank God and praise God for it, but seek church health. Now if you're not a leader uh 
[snorts]
 if you will seek to be healthy spiritually >> 
[clears throat]
 >> then because you're seeking health spiritually um then you're going to grow.

Okay? Now, what do I mean by, you know, somebody asked about what I mean by giving an example of church health? Well, I want to make sure my church is is is they understand the word they're well fed they know how to minister to people they're bearing the fruit of the spirit love, peace, joy uh they're just not uh you know, going around, you know, emotionally immature but they're healthy spiritually.

And as a result, they begin to grow and as a result, the church begins to grow. Seek health. Seek health and everything starts growing around you. That's so important. So important. >> 
[snorts]
 >> Yeah, at each one of these points, I can I can remember what I was going through at that time and what I was praying about at that time when God began to speak these things.

I hope this is helping somebody. Number five. Here's the nugget number five, some things you can live by. Learn contentment where you are presently. Learn how to be content where you are presently. Great gains come from contentment and godliness. Um contentment is interesting. Uh There's a different now, you know, being content >> 
[snorts]
 >> and and and continuing to grow versus not being satisfied or being satisfied with no intention of going forward.

In other words, you're satisfied, I'm going to stay here. I ain't I ain't going nowhere. I'm right No, no, no, no, no. Um there's I could we call that complacency. I did a teaching one time, contentment versus complacency. And when you are content, in other words, you're grateful and thankful for where you are presently, but you're still believing God to go forward.

All right? And so what happens, you got a 500 square foot house. Well, first of all, you it's a 500 square foot shack. And you're content there, but you're you're you're renovating it. And you are you know, changing the roof and you're putting a new paint job on and you're you're renovating it.

And then later on, because you were content there, but continued to go forward, um you didn't become complacent, then you sold what used to be a shack for five six times what it was worth. That's That's what I'm talking about. Learn contentment where you are presently. Don't go into complacency, but learn how to be content.

Great gains come from contentment and godliness. And I'm telling you right now that has been so true. I've learned how to be okay with me, and I've learned how to be okay with where I am, but you know, I still I'm still pressing. I'm still pressing and I've learned how to be um um thankful for everything.

I appreciate I appreciate um uh everything, but I don't expect anything. And I think I used to say it like this, expect nothing, but appreciate everything. Yeah. Expect nothing, but appreciate everything. And that'll that'll keep you pretty sound. It'll keep you sound. You know, I don't expect anything from anybody.

But if they should give me a pair of socks, I'm I'm certainly appreciative. I'm certainly grateful. I'm certainly thankful. That's a That's a good attitude. That creates great energy. People really want to be around stuff like that. You know what I mean? Number six. How much time we got?

Yeah. Seek the grace-based family. Uh grace-based parenting plus equality in marriage. In other words, uh how how do I say this? We have to be careful not to continue to define family based on the traditional um um definition. Um we keep looking for the roles and the we keep looking for the laws.

We keep saying, you know, this guy's supposed to do that and that wife's supposed to do that. I I want to do everything based in grace. As a as a family man, I I I had to learn about grace-based parenting. Uh and on top of that, there are two things I had to learn.

I had to learn about grace-based parenting, that my parenting was not grace-based, and there's a consequence for your parenting not being grace-based, but God'll fix it later. Plus um biblical equality in my marriage. Biblical equality in my marriage. It it it was no longer coming home and letting the wife know I'm in charge, the kids know I'm I'm in charge, the the the dog, the rats, the roaches let them know I'm in charge.

I it was, you know, it that was pressure anyway, because it's like, you know, just something was never right with it, you know, it's like something just didn't feel right, but you know, that's what I was taught. That's what I all I knew and I understood at that time.

Uh but grace-based parenting, we got to learn how to be graceful with with raising our kids uh and quit um condemning them so much, you know. Um condemning them for their sins mostly. It's like, you know, they sin and then you go and you you tell them how bad they are.

Um and then they think of you know, they grow up thinking, well, I'm a bad person. Uh yeah, you just need to sit back and remember when you were that age and and um you know, I'm not not I'm not saying don't bring correction. I'm saying you got to learn how to talk to people.

You got to learn how to be an example and and and discuss with them and and um you know, give a little room for God to to work and operate and don't get so fearful that you're you know, sending them to hell every other day because you know, they're figuring it out.

I mean, but they will figure it out and that's something I probably need to teach on. Um grace-based parenting. Taff and I talk about that a lot. And biblical equality is huge. It it doesn't mean that um a woman's 
[snorts]
 dominating the man or a woman's trying to be the man.

The woman can't be the man. The man's the man and the woman's the woman. But we we can learn how to stand on equal grounds because of what what Jesus has done. Because of Jesus, we can all stand on equal grounds. Remember he said no more Jew or Greek, no more male or female, but we're all one in Christ Jesus.

Well, in Christ Jesus, we can stand on equal grounds. But then there's a learning curve. We got to learn how to live in a marriage that's based on biblical equality. And I'm telling you when you learn how to do that, the devil can come, but you you'll be able to overcome because of a lot of things you learn there.

But anyway, I wanted to just mention that. That was That was a key change in my life to put away this this domination where I wanted to dominate my wife and dominate my children and dominate my house. And I wanted to control it because that's what you're supposed to do as a man.

And I found out that ain't right. You know? But um not just, you know, telling you something I studied, but actually, you know, you know, Taff and I, we've been living this way for some years now and uh it's a blessing of the Lord. It really is a blessing of the Lord.

Number seven. >> 
[snorts]
 >> When reading the Bible and wanting to learn how to grow, number seven. >> 
[snorts]
 >> I had this word to come to me, rightly divide the word. Present the right doctrine. Rightly divide the word and present the right doctrine. You know, a lot of us we just kind of read the Bible, we bump into a scripture, say, "Oh, that sounds good," because it kind of may fit the thought that we had or fit the illustration that we're looking at.

And uh I have learned that if I'm going to share the word with people, I need to rightly divide it. In other words, I don't want to just look at a scripture that sounds good, but I want to back up several verses, several chapters and says and say and ask why how does this fit in?

What was the original intent for what was said here? And then how how does it fit within the context of the whole New Testament? How does it How does the the New Testament fit in in the context of the Old Testament? And it's just really really been a blessing to rightly divide the word and not just say it cuz I know I'm going to get a good shout, good hand clap, or you know, go out to dinner with somebody and say, "Let me share the revelation I had with you."

It's almost like we're ego tripping on the revelation that we have. And I just I I just made my mind up that yeah, I'm going to rightly divide the word um so that I can present it right versus sticking with a um traditional belief about what I thought that meant.

Uh that's been a blessing in my life. We we love to stick with what we've always believed about a certain subject that we heard. And I I was I was ready to just let I want to grow. And uh if this isn't what this means, then let me know that it's not what it means, and I'll be happy to change.

I mean, uh I want and it's just it's important because it's like, if I write a letter to a friend and a thousand years go away, and you never consider the fact that some of the things in the letter was meant for for the friend only. And then some of the things may be meant for can be used by anybody that reads it, but that that always bothers me.

I don't want to be this teacher that shows up in heaven and I'm like, well, you know, none of us are perfect. We're just preaching, you know, in part and understanding what we're doing part, but I want to I want to do it my best to kind of at least go and examine the con con the context of it and you know, it's it's okay if I don't get it all right, but I I'm going to keep going and keep trying and that challenged me to do that.

And it challenged a lot of things that I believe, a lot of things that I thought, and a lot of things that I felt like I need to correct. And so, >> 
[snorts]
 >> yeah. All right, number eight. I think I got time for one more. Uh I remember when the Lord said, you need to celebrate the new birth.

That that uh he says people do that. We, you know, they get saved and they celebrate people getting born again, but they forget the new life or the discipleship. And I thought about that. That hit me like a ton of bricks. Somebody get born again and I'm like, "Whoa, they got born again."

And there's no discipleship. It's almost like having a baby and everybody celebrating the birth of the baby and then putting the baby on the side of the street. It's like, "Oh my God. Oh my goodness, Lord." I said I see that. It's getting born again is one thing, but being discipled into this life that you got born again is it's important and and so discipleship becomes the the the everybody can share in in discipling someone.

Uh somebody get born again, you shouldn't wait for an invitation to do that. You you need to go and invite. I I'd love to I'm here and I'm available for you. I I'd love to uh share some things with you in my life when I first got born again.

And uh yeah, it discipleship is is huge. Uh but as Christian people, we kind of shy away from discipleship because we figure well, that ain't none of my business. Well, man, what if it what if you know, that's what this confession really is. This this this this confession time is a time of discipleship.

Uh sharing things with you, helping you to grow up. Isn't it amazing that we can use technology to become a part of the discipleship of people who gotten born again and and people who didn't know and people who want to grow and all that kind of stuff. God told me don't celebrate being born again and neglect the discipleship.

He said I don't do it in my notes. I put on the side, "Don't do that. Don't do that." Uh So, yeah. Uh The last one, number nine, don't be influenced by mammon. Mammon. Uh be a giver and I'll talk about what what that means. Uh mammon is not just money.

Mammon is the spirit behind or the attitude behind money, which means you're willing to do anything to get it. And so, people they mistake being a giver, which the New Testament highly recommends, versus being somebody that's motivated by mammon and um they they think about a whole a whole different way of doing things.

Praise God. Hey, I don't want to hold you guys. Um I got to get out of here. I got some big appointments today and I'm looking forward to it. I love y'all so much. Pray that you're continuing to grow and um continue to just seek after God and