Transcription
If you, if you're taking notes, the title of my sermon is "Seven Gems of Wisdom." Seven Gems of Wisdom. If you didn't hear the sermon last week, you may want to go back and listen to it because this is a, this is a, a spin-off of that. So, I talked about wisdom and the importance of wisdom. Today, I'm going to give you seven gems of wisdom. And that simply is seven keys or seven principles of wisdom. Things that wise people know, things that the Bible shows and shares. And if you would adopt these things and apply them to your life, you will become wiser, and you will see the increase in your life relationally, mentally, physically, or whatever area you're looking for increase in.
If you would apply these things, God has given us principles. Principles. He said, "Wisdom is the principle thing." In other words, he was saying wisdom is the beginning thing, it's the foundational thing, it's the most important thing. And if you would just get wisdom, it would solve everything. It would solve marriage problems, financial problems, uh, um, business problems, relationship problems. Every area of your life is traced back to being stupid. And I know that's a mean word and it's a custom word, but there's just a lot of stupid people, there's a lot of foolish people. And if you would get wisdom and understanding and discernment, you will see God moving your life. You will see the protection of God, the hand of God, because wisdom is your defense.
The Bible says that wisdom is better than weapons of war. In Ecclesiastes, wisdom is better than weapons of war. In other words, God says, "In battle, it's better to have wisdom than it is to have weapons." God says, "It's better to have wisdom than it is to have a gun." In other words, somebody can pull a gun on you, you start speaking in terms, they're like, "I should have got saved and I should have just loved my family more." And all of a sudden, here, just take it. Wisdom, wisdom, you got the power of God backing you. Somebody pull a gun on you, I mean, freeze and give them the money. Speaking in tongues, praise God. Start praying, start quoting some scripture. Amen. I'm telling you, I saw a Christian movie and, uh, God was robbing a church. Pastor started praying, that man gave him money back. Like, wisdom is powerful. It's your defense. It guides you, it leads you, it protects you.
I remember, I was watching, I love medieval type war movies. I was watching this war movie and this king, he had a hundred soldiers. He was going to war against a king with ten thousand soldiers. And he was confident, he was poised, he was sitting there, he was eating, he was drinking. And I'm just trying to figure out, what does he know that I don't know? Because you got a hundred, he got ten thousand. What does he know? And anyways, so they come on their horses and they meet and they begin to talk. Like, this is kind of weird. Like, if we're going to meet up, we're going to walk in the country right here. But that's, nonetheless. So they came and they talked. And then the other king said, "Where do you want to fight at?" He was like, "Let's go to the open field so all your men could be in the open field so you can have all your men with you." He said, "Oh, awesome. Let's go to the open field." Then so he brings his ten thousand men to the open field. They come inside of there. This guy sends out ten people and they light each edge around the field and they ended up boxing them in the field with a square of fire. And then they set in trees and they picked them off with arrows until they were all dead. A hundred men killed ten thousand men in ten minutes because of wisdom. He was a brilliant strategist. He was a brilliant commander. And he understood that in war, you don't need more, you need wisdom. That's why God told David, "Hey, you only need 300 mighty men." That's why God told Gideon, "Your armies too big, your army's too big." Because the bigger they are, the slower they are. They're not as wide. Shrink this thing down so the spirit of wisdom can hit your army. And also, you don't even got to fight because it's the best. The battle's the Lord's anyway.
Wisdom is saying, God fights your battles. You don't have to speak up for yourself. God will speak for you. You don't have to avenge yourself. God will avenge you. You need to quit talking so much because they can't misquote silence. And some of you guys keep losing in battles because you keep talking. Let the Lord fight your battles because he will be your avenger. When you stop avenging yourself, he will take control. When you let go of the reins, wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. It's the principle thing. It's the foundational thing. And all thine getting, get understanding. Wisdom is your protection. Discernment is your protection. You, you're walking around with a gun thinking you're safe. Do you know that the moment that your gun is in your pocket, you can get shot? Have you ever considered that your gun ain't protection? Wisdom is protection. Wisdom is your writing to the store and the Holy Ghost say, "Go to the other one." That's wisdom. That will protect you way more than your gun ever could. It will protect you. Wisdom is your defense. It will protect you from people. Some of you guys are dating, you're like, "I don't know who to date." Ask God, because he knows them even when you don't. Wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. It's the principle. Get wisdom. It is your defense. It is your protection. Quit fighting yourself. Keep protecting yourself. Quit trying to protect your name. God will fight your battles. Wisdom. So get it, get it, get it. Whatever it takes to get wisdom, get wisdom. Wisdom is the master key to all treasure in life. You want to be happy? The Bible says the man that has wisdom is happy. See, it's hard to be happy when you don't have wisdom because unhappiness is rooted in lies. Do you know depression is a lie? Depression is when a lie shows up so big, so strong, and so loud that you keep hearing it, and then you start believing it, then you get depressed. Anxiety means, "This isn't going to go right. This is going to be bad. People don't like you. People don't love you. People don't care about you. They don't care if you leave. They don't care." Day, day, day. And you're like, lies. Wisdom is truth. In other words, when you have wisdom, it's a defense against anxiety. It's a defense against protection. It's a defense against everything that comes against you because it is true. And not just worldly wisdom. I'm talking godly wisdom. The word of God is wisdom. Read the Bible.
You want to know what's really, really funny to me? Everybody that usually gets a word of wisdom, they ain't wise. Can I tell you something? Please don't give me a word of wisdom if you don't have wisdom. How you gonna get a word of wisdom and you ain't got none? It'd be the dumbest people with a word of wisdom. I'll just be looking like, "No, I don't know. I don't receive this. No, I do not." Do you follow? I do not. God's gonna send you around the world, yeah, because you heard me preach and you liked it. But that ain't a spirit of wisdom. Tell me what I'm struggling with so I can stop. That is wisdom. Tell me what I don't know, cause God already revealed that to me. Or tell me what I do know that I don't want you to know. That's wisdom, friend. That's wisdom. So the spirit of wisdom. And to get wisdom, wisdom costs. It costs time in the word of God. You're not going to be wise conveniently. You're going to have to spend time in the word of God, time in the presence of God, time in prayer to get wisdom. "I want wisdom, but I don't want to read my Bible." You won't get it because the word of God is wisdom. And let me tell you something else. Everyone's walking around talking, "I got a word from the Lord." Did you read the word of the Lord? Because the word from the Lord will not transcend you reading the word of the Lord. And I found in my faith and in my life and in my observation that the people that read the word of the Lord get words from the Lord a lot more frequently. Because in order to get a word from the Lord, you need the word of the Lord to validate the word from the Lord. Wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. It's the principle thing. And all thine getting, get understanding.
Um, seven gems of wisdom. If you have your Bibles, go to Proverbs chapter 16. Seven gems of wisdom. Seven gems of wisdom. Proverbs 16. You guys enjoying this so far? Now, before I read this, some of you guys are old. And that's cool. It's good to be old. And to be honest, you may not be old. Because if you're 20 and you're going to die at 25, you're old. If you're 16, you're going to die at 100, you're young. So old is not an age. It's actually based on how much time you have left. So maybe you're not old, maybe you are young. But let's just say you're not hip. A gem is like a major key. You don't know if you ever heard of DJ Khaled? He's like, you know, a key. "I got a major key." Like a gem is a major key. It's a gem, right? And most of what they call a gem in the world isn't a gem. It's just worldly advice. But a true gem comes from the word of God and the ways of God. So we have seven gems of wisdom. I could have did 50 because as I was studying this week, they were just, I'm like, "God, the whole Bible is a gem." You can just open it up and reach genuine leather at the top. That's the gem. This is real leather. Oh my God. God did this. Um, but I picked seven that I felt was necessary for our body of people in my counseling and meeting and spending time with you. These are things that I feel like that can really help our body.
Proverbs 16, verse 3 says, "Commit your ways to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established." Commit your ways to the Lord. Commit your ways to the Lord. Uh, the first gem that I want to discuss is, and look in my gym, y'all. Hey. Uh, the first gem I want to discuss is the gem of focus. Everyone say focus. Focus is a gem. Focus is a gem. Do you know that if the devil can't get in front of you and stop you, he's going to get behind you and push you too fast? Let me say it again. If the devil can't get in front of you and stop you, he's going to get behind you and push you too fast. The devil is always coming to break your focus, to break your concentration, to break your prayer, to break your silent time. He's coming after your focus because focus is what God gave you to get to the next level. Focus is what God gave you to get wisdom. Focus is what God gave you to be a great husband. Focus is what God gave you to be a great parent. And if the enemy can steal your focus, he can steal your effectiveness. Many of you guys aren't effective because you can't focus. Many of you guys can't sleep at night because you can't focus. You know you got insomnia because you can't focus. Your mind is here, and it's there, and it's at work, and it's at work, and it's over here, and it's at church, and you can't find peace because you can't find focus. Focus is powerful. It's a major key.
Let me tell you something. If you want to kill a man with an idea, give him nine other ones. If you want to kill a man with an idea, give him nine other ones. Because men fell because of broken focus. Men fail because of broken focus. And when the devil wants to stop you, he breaks your focus. This is the area that the devil has attacked me with personally. He will break my focus. I'm trying to build something in the church, and the devil's like, "Well, you need to do this after church." And I jump over here, and he's like, "You need to do that." And I'm over here, and I'm over there, and I'm so scattered and divided that I don't have any concentration. Let me tell you something. Concentration comes by elimination. To be successful, it's not really what you do, it's what you don't do that makes you successful. To be fruitful in the kingdom of God, it's not what you do, it's what you don't do. It's not what you say yes to, it's what you say no to. And many of you guys need to say no more so you can say yes to the right thing, so you can say yes to the God thing, so you can say yes to the destiny thing. Many of you guys are saying no to destiny because you're saying yes to Netflix. Many of you guys are saying no to destiny because you're saying yes to going out to eat with a friend. Many of you guys are saying no to destiny because you're saying yes to social media. You got to begin to say no to the right things so you can say yes to the right thing. Say no to the wrong thing so you can say yes to the right things. You have to have focus. People fail because of broken focus. When the devil wants to kill plan A, he presents plan B. He presents plans B. What did God call you to do? Who did God call you to be? Where did God call you to go? That is plan A. There is no plan B. I have a God-sized dream and I'm not compromising. I'm not selling my dream or my destiny. I will do what God has called me to do. I will go where God has called me to go. I will reach who God has called me to reach. I'm going to stand and hold my position until God changes my condition. I'm not tapping out and I'm not tapping in. I will stand until God makes a way.
Well, Pastor Catch, I don't have time for plan A because I got all these kids and I'm at work all day. When you get off, there's two hours. If you have focus and concentration, you can do a ton in two hours. A ton. Let me give you an example of focus. Focus is the difference between a flashlight and a laser. If I got a flashlight and pointed it at you, it would illuminate your face. If I got a medical laser, I can cut through your bone. Both of them are light. One is spread abroad and one has concentrated focus. And because of that concentrated focus, it can cut through metal. It can cut through bone. It can cut through steel because of concentration. What could you cut through through concentration? What could you, what could you do for the kingdom of God through concentration? What can you do for your family in your home because of concentration? You got to begin to learn how to focus. You got to learn how to concentrate. Concentration comes by elimination. What do you need to stop doing? What do you need to do less of? Some of you guys are doing laundry every day. Can you do it once a week? Some of you guys go to Walmart every day. Can you go once a week? If you quit being so cheap, you can get more focus in your life. Some of you guys are, "Some five dollars on another five kind of people." With five dollars on number five, gonna have you at the gas station five days a week. And now you're on the cell phone, and now you're not in your word, and you're not praying. And if you would just put sixty on that thing and fill up the tank, you will have time to do the things of God. Quit putting five on it. Put fifty on it. Go all the way in. Go to the grocery store and buy enough food for the week so you don't have to come back tomorrow. Some of you guys living on a prayer. No, you need to live on faith and change your mindset to be more fruitful. Focus, focus, focus. Focus is powerful. And if you would ever get focused by concentration, you would see that God can do more with your time than you ever imagined. My next, that's gem number one.
Gem number two. Gem number two is time. Ephesians 5:16-18 says, "Redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise." So let's talk about redeeming the time. The days are evil, which means the days are out to steal your time. And I know you don't hear this kind of stuff preached in church. But we, we get now to this wisdom today because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. In other words, God is saying, "The day is evil." It's like, like, have you ever experienced a day like you wake up with a plan, and you get a phone call, this happened, you got to run over here, you got to do that, you got to do this, and you look up and you're like, "Where did my time go?" Where did my time go? You get to the end of the week and you realize, "I don't have no time." I'm telling you, two things that will always fail you is time and money. You realize there is more month than money. And there, and there is more taste and time. The day is evil. You have to figure out how to master your time. It's evil. And then here's what he said. He said, "This, he said, therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Do you know God gave you time for the will of the Lord? You missed it. God gave you time for the will of the Lord. Do you know that you don't have time to watch TV? He didn't give you time. I'm not saying you can't watch TV, but he didn't create time so you can watch TV. Time was created for destiny. It was created for purpose. God says, "The day is evil. You need to understand the will of the Lord because the devil is after your time."
Some of you guys don't get it. Some of you guys are so into saving money that you, that you miss saving time. Let me tell you a couple things I stopped doing. I stopped looking for deals. I stopped using coupons. And I stopped saving money. And the reason why is, I would spend an hour looking for a coupon to save a dollar. My hour's more, more, more, more than a dollar. My hour's worth more than a dollar. Forget that coupon. Let me tell you why. I'm gonna tell you why we got to forget that coupon, church. Check this out. I know it's funny talk about you playing in church. Follow me. If the devil take your house, you can get another one. If he takes your car, you can get another one. If he takes your clothes, you can get more clothes. If he takes your job, you can get another job. But if he takes your time, he got you. He got you. And the devil is, is throwing money at you. He's throwing opportunities at you. He's throwing all of these things at you because he's giving you something in exchange for your time. Because your time is your treasure to purpose. So the devil said, "I will give you money, convenience, and pleasure to steal what you need to build the kingdom." That's why the Bible says, "Don't be unwise. Understand what the will of the Lord is." In other words, what's better? Doing the will of God or saving a thousand dollars this month? The will of God. Because guess what? The will of God can provide for you. What I realize is, I can make more money, but I can't make time. Time is an equal playing field. Me and Bill Gates got the same amount of time. We ain't got the same amount of money. Praise God. But we got the same amount of time. Bill Gates came by more time than I got. Jesus didn't have more time than I got. Time is the equal playing field. And God has given everyone perfect time and perfect timing for their assignment. Time is to be used for purpose. Use time wisely. Because the thing about time is, time isn't cumulative. You can't store up time. You can't save time. And God says, "If you serve him right, he would actually redeem the time that the locust stole." What is the locust? When he was talking about the locust, in other words, he was talking about the enemies. The time that the enemy's still. Do you know some people, they just call you and they're just talking to you, they're just on the phone because they are time thieves? I'm not letting nobody steal my time. I can be effective last year because I didn't protect the clock. I've guarded the clock now. I'm protected. I get on a phone call, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. I go to a lunch, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. I go out to eat, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. I had to learn how to redeem the time. Time, it is powerful and it's necessary.
Let me tell you something else about time. If you are rushed or running late, which used to be my middle end, first name, right? Haven't been late anywhere in 2022. Haven't been late if I didn't go somewhere because I decided not to. I had to understand that I'm cluttered. If you're running out of time and you're running late, you are oversaturated. You need to start eliminating some things. Jesus saved the whole world and he never ran. He saved the whole world and never ran. He walked everywhere. He didn't even have a horse. I would at least have been in there getting up, you know what I'm saying? Jesus didn't even have a horse. He walked everywhere because he understood the pace of grace. He never rushed. He was never heard. Even when Lazarus was dead, even when Lazarus died, "If you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died." He still walked with grace because he understood the power of time. Simplify your life. Half of what you're doing, you don't need to be doing. You don't have to be on social media. You don't have to be on Instagram. You don't have to be doing these things. Elimination gives power to concentration. Save the time.
Let me give you a major gem. See, when you think about your future, when you think about your future, it's a very deceptive, deceiving concept. And what makes it so deceptive and deceiving is, if I came to you and if I pointed out a flaw, you would probably respond and say, "I'm going to change. I'm going to change." And if I say, "Well, you know, I can't change overnight. I'm going to, I'm going to change at some point. You know, in the future, I'm going to pull this together. In the future, I'ma fix this. In the future." You, you can't change in the future. You can't because the future is intangible. You can't control nor touch it. It's like the past. Like, like think of something you regret. Try to go back and fix it. You can't go back to the past. You can't touch it. It's not tangible. You can't touch the fu, you can't touch the past. You can't go to the future. The only time you can ever change anything in your life is in the present. The present is the only thing that you actually control. You don't control the future. Which means that any day you change is today. Any day you change is today. So if you got a bad attitude and you said, "Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna deal with this tomorrow." I'm a deal. You can't because you can't test them. Or that's like saying, "I'm gonna deal with it yesterday." You already cussed everybody out yesterday. You can't take that back. In order to deal with a problem, you have to deal with it today. Today is the day of change. The Lord said, "Choose this day whom you gonna serve." Choose this day blessing or cursing. Choose this day because today is the only day you will ever have a choice. And then when you go till tomorrow, tomorrow becomes today. And then again, today is the only day you ever have a choice. So today is your day. So the major key, the major gem is, everything you want in the future, every purpose, every plan, everything you're believing for, is done today. Your future is locked in your daily routine. Your daily return. Let's say you say, "Hey, I want to be a better preacher. I want to be a better singer. I want to be a better husband. I want to be a better mother." You have to create a daily routine to figure out how to do it. And what happens is, the days are cumulative. Which means when you do the same thing every day, it begins to stack on top of each other and it creates what's called change. It's like losing weight. You can't lose weight in the future or over a month. You can only lose weight today. And when you lose weight today, and then the next day, and then the next today, and then the next today, it begins to add because it's cumulative. And then you see a big weight change. So the day is your power. So take your day back, devil. You can't have my day. I'm not gonna be talking about the future. I'm not gonna be talking about tomorrow. I'm taking my day back.
So the devil has you believing you're going to get better tomorrow while he's sniping your day every day. He's robbing you. You, you get robbed every day. And believing tomorrow, "I'll be better." Jokes on you. The power of your future is in your day. The key to your future is in your daily routine. Whatever you want to improve, create a daily routine, focus on it for that day, and watch it accumulate and you will see change. It's in your day. And a last thing I want to say about time is this. Last thing I want to say about time. Spend more money to keep your time. I've done something this week and I'm ashamed. I'ma share with you. I've done something. I drove to Dallas to fly to Chicago. Shout out to my dad. I know he's watching. I drove to Dallas to fly to Chicago to go see my dad. The reason why I drove to Dallas is because the flight from Texas to Canada was an extra $150. So I drove an additional seven hours, eight hours after you flew at the airport. I drove an additional eight hours to save $300. But my eight hours is valuable. What could the Lord have spoke to me in eight hours? What could God have done in my life? What revelation could have been preaching today that's stronger than the one I'm preaching now because I had those eight hours? Do I trust God? Did God want me to go to Chicago? Can he provide? I'm not saying don't save money. I'm not saying don't be smart. I'm not saying don't be diligent. But guess what? That $300, I can make God can have one person call me that wasn't gonna call me with a $3,000 order and I could 10x that $300 that would have saved me eight hours and I could have more revelation or preach the word of God. I can replace the money. You can lose everything in your bank and you can wake up tomorrow. Somebody can write you a check that'll be more money than you can ever make in your life. Don't minimize God. Don't make God small. Save the time because time is your weapon against the devil and it's your source of destiny. The day is evil. Don't be unwise. Know the will of the Lord. Praise God.
The next one we got is honor. Everyone say honor. The Bible talks about honoring our leaders, submitting to our leaders. All throughout the Bible, we see honor, we see submission. Submission begins when agreement ends. Submission begins when agreement don't take place. You run away from honor. Honor is a major gem. It's a major gym. I'm gonna teach you something so great. Honor. You lose access to what you don't honor. You lose access to what you don't honor. In my life, God has given me the capacity to be connected with some of the greatest men of God around the world. Some of the greatest men of God. Some of my pastors and mentors are world-renowned men. And, and I don't have a big mega church or a ton of money or a ton of whatever that it takes to be connected at that level. This is what God gave me. Honor. He gave me honor. I always honor authority, no matter if they're wrong, no matter if I don't like what they say, no matter what. I honor. And that honor gives me access. Can let me tell you, let me tell you something about people with power, people that's anointed, and people that, people that has worked really hard to get to a higher level. They're at a dimension in their life where they're not going to tolerate disrespect. They're not, they're not going to tolerate somebody coming late to meetings. They're not going to tolerate somebody not calling when they don't supposed to call. They're not going to tolerate anything that's less than excellence. My pastor told me something that changed my life this year. He said, "You honor me well. That's why we're in a relationship." He said, "And you're excellent when it comes to me. You always call on time. You do everything on time because of your level of honor." He said, "I got a, I got a request for you in 2022." I said, "What, Pastor?" He said, "I would ask of you to honor yourself at the same degree you honor me. Because you're on time for me, but you're late for yourself. You do everything you're supposed to do for me, but you don't do it for yourself. Can you honor yourself at the same degree that you honor me?" He said, "Don't be late because you can. Because when you're late somewhere, you're disrespecting yourself. When you don't do what you said you're gonna do, you're disrespecting yourself. When you don't walk in excellence, you're dishonoring yourself." He said, "Don't honor me above the way that you honor yourself." He said, "Because but your honor has given you access." Honor. I'm on staff at this church because I honored. That wasn't my incentive, it wasn't my motive, but it was my heart. And I honored my pastor, and he made a way for me to be on staff at the church. Honor. Whatever you honor, you get access to. Let me say it again. Whatever you honor, you get access to. Honor. But whatever you don't honor, you lose access to. You lose access to people. That don't honor me, I don't have much time for. Pastor never texts me back. Check your honor. I'll text people back and honor me. So if I don't ever text you back, maybe because I'm not going to be texting dishonor. I'm not going to give out dishonor. I won't tolerate dishonor. Honor is your access key. It's not a key, it's the key. You want a promotion at your job? Honor. Because dishonor is everywhere. But the people that honor will always come out on top. Honor. Honor. Even when we got this building, I honored the man. We, we paid him 30, 30 less than what he wanted. But I'll never forget, he said, "I want you to have this building because you're honorable." Honor.
Dr. Myles Monroe, is what was he passed away in 2014. Was the most polarizing pastor of this age around the world. Maybe some of you guys don't know him in America, but around the world, he said, "With kings." I mean, he was, oh, globally, he was bigger than Billy Graham. I mean, everybody honored and knew Dr. Myles Monroe. Just on another level. I went to a conference to meet him. I mean, my hero. Anybody in this world more than Dr. King or anybody. I wanted to meet Dr. Myles Monroe. If you don't know him, then you won't understand. But if you know him, right, you know why I wanted to meet him. And I went to this conference and I had one goal in mind. I ain't gonna lie. I was like a cheerleader at a basketball game. Myles Monroe, like, I went to meet Dr. Myles. I was a cheerleader. "Can I take out his trash, please? Just gotta meet him." He gave birth to my calling. The reason why I wanted to preach. I gotta meet him. And I was at this conference and I'm in line to meet him. And then this guy behind me in the line started talking to me. And then he asked the famous question. He said, "It's a little loud. Can we step over here and talk?" So he called me out of the line. And I felt the Holy Spirit saying, "Go and talk to him. Go connect with him." So I sat here and I talked to him. And we talked and we talked. Past this, you remember this. And I'm sitting here and I'm talking to him. And it's like Dr. Myles left, but he is speaking it to me. I'm speaking into him. We're connecting. And I'm honoring him. And I'm honoring his gift and this call. And there's thousands lining up to honor Dr. Myles. When I'm honoring Pastor Willie. So the next day, I come to the convention. Is heartbroken that I didn't get to meet Dr. Myles. And Pastor Willie was like, "You are so honorable. Like, the way you've talked to me and you treated me, you treated my wife. You're so honorable." He said, "I want you to come somewhere with me." And I was like, "Well, where are we going?" I'm back. "Where are we going?" He was like, "Well, me and Dr. Myles Monroe are best friends. We do Thanksgiving at my house every year. We're best friends. I want you to come to his birthday party with me." I'm like, "What?" So I'm at this private birthday party with Dr. Myles Monroe. And I mean, he's like a whole king. I mean, he has, it's like Black Panther, just, just Wakanda forever, just in there. He's an African man. He's in here with all his royalty. And then there's me, practicing there too. And we're there. And I'm just like, "I don't even know what to do." And then we talked. And we connected. I spent all the money in my bank to honor. You know, I was like, "I got $650. I said, "It's $20 to get back to Texarkana. We're gonna give him $630." And I got $630. I put it in the envelope. I honored them. We began to talk and connect. And then he was like, "Hey, I want you to speak at my birthday." Later on, when it's time to speak, I want you to speak. And now here I am, sitting in this room full of the most influential pastors in the world. I'm 23 years old. And I'm preaching to him. And literally, relationships and connections came out of honoring a man I did not know. Because nothing exposes dishonor like the way you treat people you think you don't need. Let me say it again. Nothing exposes dishonor like the way you treat people you think you don't need. That's why Jesus said, "If you've done this to the least of these, you've also done it unto me."
Real honor. Don't just honor power and position. Real honor honors anybody because these are God's kids. I'm gonna honor up wherever I go. I don't honor because you deserve honor. There's times in my life I don't deserve honor. I honor because I'm honorable. I don't honor for you. I'll do it for me. Because when I dishonor you, I'll dishonor me. When I talk against you, I'll talk against me. Honor, honor, honor. It will open doors that you never imagined. Your boss don't like you because you're dishonorable. They don't promote you because you're dishonorable. You don't get a pay raise because you're dishonorable. Everywhere I've ever been in my life, quickly to the top, even when I didn't have the capacity. Honor. My mentor, I couldn't work as good as nobody else there. I respected him and honored him. Put me all over everybody. Honor. Honor. People love honor because this world is so dishonorable.
Um, number four. Number four. I'm gonna hit these a little quick. I gotta get ready to close. Little. Everyone say little. A gem of wisdom is little. Wise people understand little. They respect little. Let me explain what I mean. The Bible says, "Do not despise the day of small beginnings." Do not despise it. Do not despise something small. Do not despise small beginnings. And my whole life, when I read that scripture, I always thought that God was talking about, "Don't despise and disrespect something small because if you do, I won't give you something bigger." And I would get up and preach, you know, "If you be faithful with little, God will give you much. If you be faithful with little, God will give you much. If you respect little, God will give you greater." But as I read the scripture this weekend and studied it and looked at it in prayer, God was like, "You're missing it. You're missing it. You're missing it." I'm like, "What am I missing?" He said, "You're missing it." So I stepped back, I looked at the scripture, and then God began to give me other scriptures to confirm this. See, the thing you don't understand about little, it's not that you have to respect little so God can see your heart and give you bigger. It's deeper than that. The reason why you have to respect little is because little is the starting place. It's the birthing place. It's the beginning place. Let me, let me break this down to you. Um, whenever God starts a miracle or a blessing or your destiny or your purpose or your assignment, he gives it to you little. And your ability to manage, to cultivate, to love, and take care of little causes little to grow into bigger. So it's not that God makes you be faithful with little, then gives you bigger. No, you steward it little, and it becomes bigger. Let me prove it to you. Whenever you get a baby, you don't get an adult. God gives you a little seed. And the way the mother's body stewards that seed causes it to be a baby. And you steward that baby until it grows into maturity. The same way, you get a garden. You get it by a couple of seeds. When you take those seeds and you plant them and you steward those seeds, those little seeds become a big garden. So some of you guys have been given your destiny, your purpose, and your assignment, but you missed it because it was small. You missed it. God, God told me when God gave me a vision, he said, "I'm going to make your name great. You're going to go around this world. You're going to preach to millions of people." And then I said, "God, I'm preaching to hundreds of people." He said, "Exactly. And keep being faithful. Keep being diligent. Keep studying. Keep getting revelation. Keep at it. Love the people I gave you." And that will grow. And then when these people start liking you, they'll go to work and say, "Have you heard of Pastor KJ? Hey, listen to his YouTube." And the thing that you're stewarding and loving and honoring will begin to promote you. But if you disrespect little, you'll never get big. Because the little makes you big. It just takes a little, a couple little people to like you to make you big. Somebody in this room can send my video to somebody that I don't even know, and my name can explode overnight. But that's me being faithful to little. What is the little things that God has given you? If you can't be faithful with what's another man's, God, not God's not gonna bless you with your own. Little, little, little. How you treat little determines what you get. God is a fair God. He gave all of the people with talents a little, little talent. You get one here, here, you, you, you. What they did with that talent determined how it got bigger. And when it got bigger, the master gave him more. This is how destiny is. This is how destiny and purpose happens. Is you taking something small and making the most of it. What do you do with the little opportunities that God gave you? God is saying, "I've given you a job and you make $80 an hour and you're late to work every day and you just walk around telling me how you hate your job and you're ready for a new one." And God says, "If you're late to this job, this job could be the place that was actually going to give you a better job. The man I sent to hire you, I sent him in there every Thursday, and you halfway worked, and he couldn't see your value, so he never gave you another job offer." Little, little. You got to be faithful with little. Don't despise the day of small beginnings. Because everything in this world comes little. Plants come little. Babies come little. Everything you get comes little. If you didn't get legacy or inheritance, everything, the money you start off with is little. The first house you get is little. The car you first drove, you didn't like it, it was little. Everything is little. Do you know Jesus? God came to this world little. Even Jesus had to grow in wisdom. So do you. Little. Everything had to be little. Jesus had to wait till he was 30. Because he was little. The Bible says, "A child differs none from a bond servant when he's a child." Even if he's royal, God said, "You can be the child of a king, but if you're a baby, you're like a servant. You're little." But you got to be faithful in the small, and it grows to big. So little doesn't make God give you big. You steward little, and it becomes big. Oh, come on somebody. Give God a shout of praise. I got three more. I'm gonna hit these real fast.
The next one is pain. Everyone say pain. If you're going to walk in purpose and destiny, one of the gems you have to understand is the gem of pain. Many of you guys complain about pain. You pray away pain. You get on Facebook, you post about pain. You share quotes that say, "If you just knew what I had to deal with, you, you, you would respect me more." Dude, do you not get it? Do you know pain is power? Pain is power. Whenever God wants to give somebody power, he takes them through the process of pain. Pain isn't a curse. Pain is a blessing. Pain isn't opposition. Pain is an opportunity. Pain extends between you and destiny. And what you have to learn how to do is turn your weaknesses into strengths and turn your oppositions into opportunities. Whenever you want positive virtue, it stems from negative virtue. God, I want faith. I'm going to put you in a crazy situation that only faith can get you out of. Then you get in that situation and you post about it, you cry about it, and you call everyone in your phone, but you want faith. God, I want to be strong. Okay, I'm going to make everybody around you crush you. Then you want to cry. But God says, "As they're crushing you internally, I'm strengthening you."
Pain gives birth to power. There's a basketball player, his name is Hansel. Number one recruit in America. Went in the slam dunk contest, and he has one arm. One arm. How do you play basketball with one arm? He's averaging like 30 points, winning the slam dunk contest. He has one arm. And there was an interview and they asked him, they said, "How are you so good in basketball with one arm?" He said, "I'm so good in basketball because I have one arm." See, see, it's something about disability. It's something about pain. It's something about pressure. It's something about crushing that awakens something in you that you would have never awakened. See, your disability is actually your ability to be great. Because your disability pulls something out of you that nothing else can pull out. See, Hansel realized, "I got one arm. I can't miss practice. I got one arm. I can't goof around. I got one arm. I can't miss gym sessions." And what one arm got his mind right. Some of you guys got five kids and you felt like you got a disadvantage. Now you don't got a disadvantage with five kids. You got an advantage with five kids. Because you can't play how people play with one kid. You can't play how people play with no kid. I'm about my Father's business. I got five kids. See, quit complaining about your disability and start using your disability. Turn your weakness into power. Turn your pain into purpose. And that's what the wise understand. The wise understands that disability gives birth to ability. Disability. What you don't have. Most of the creativity out of Radiant came from being broke. When you don't have money, you got creativity. Oh, we can't buy new lights. Let's paint them. Well, we can't fix this. Well, I'll put, hey, draw something.
real nice and tape it on the back. You get real creative when you broke. You, you, me, you be having a ramen noodle soup, pasta, Osaka. It's like, you, you get crafty when you ain't got no money. You know what I'm talking about?
Some of you guys are handicapped by your blessing. Some of you guys have been spoiled and you've been cuddled and you got so much that you don't understand what it actually takes. That's why Jesus let the disciples go through what they went through, man. They were wrecked. There was crush. Paul was bit by a snake. He had a thorn in his side. Why? Because this pressing gives birth to power. It gives birth to power. So understand pain. You're gonna get to the next level. You need pain.
I got two more: discernment. Everyone said discernment, discernment, discernment, discernment, discernment. The sermon is very important because it ties off the other ones together. A lot of you guys are wasting time on people. You're wasting time on people, and God's giving you discernment. Do you know it takes 0.1 second with discernment to understand that they're not listening to you? They don't care what you say. They're rejecting your wisdom, and your wisdom is becoming foolishness. Because if you keep throwing your pearls before swine, it won't be long before you're swine. Because a wise person don't throw pearls before swine. If you keep doing that, you're probably not going to be wise very long.
The Bible talks all throughout Proverbs about talking to scoffers and people that's rejecting your wisdom. The Bible says, "Don't talk to them." Well, Pastor KJ, I just, I really love them and I really care deeply and I really want to help them. No, you don't. It's an ego problem. You got ego. You got, you think that you're so awesome, so smart, you got so much wisdom and so much revelation that your advice can fix them. Who are you? But yet a righteousness of a filthy rag. You're so arrogant that you feel like you can do what God does, that if you don't help them, God can't reach them. Arrogance. That's not, that's not a heart trying to help somebody. That's arrogant. That's pride.
Because a real heart for them would say, "God, they reject my wisdom, which means I'm going to retract my wisdom and I'm going to submit to the wisdom of God and I'm going to use intercession and begin to pray for them." Because this is how I fight my battles. I fight my battles in prayer. And before I talk to men about God, I'm going to talk to God of all men. I'm going to pray, pray, pray, pray, and I'm going to walk away and let the Holy Spirit do what I never could. That's wisdom. You get out the way and you let God. And also, you save your time. And then one day, they're going to come to you looking for your wisdom.
You're so quick to want to give wisdom. First of all, I'm going to tell you the what. The people that you're trying to help can't say. They think your faith is a joke. "You want me to listen to you? Tell me about this Jesus that you keep, that you keep sinning against?" You want me? Your family, your friends, they're watching you. They're like, "Dude, you're still cussing, you're still drunk, you got the worst attitude in the whole house, you're crazy, you're sleeping around, but you want to get lunch and tell me about God?" Maybe they're rejecting your wisdom because your obedience is weak.
[Music] You want to know what speaks real loud? A changed life. It's loud. You don't have to say much. You don't have to preach much. You don't have to quote much because you walk much. So how about you focus on actually looking like Christ and you submit and give them over to Christ and watch Christ brings them back to you and they want to listen because you model his principles. Let's be like Jesus. Let's live our life and let's live our life in a way that the people around us see Christ in us. You know what? My cousin was drunk as a skunk and he's sober. There's a God somewhere.
[Music] Man, I'm telling you right now, man. This dude used to steal everything. He ain't stoned. I left my wallet, it was still there. I'm telling you. Let's let that kind of man. This girl, I'm telling you, she didn't speak to nobody. She spoke to the whole room. My God, there's a God in heaven somewhere. Let's shock people with our growth instead of trying to convince people with our words.
Discernment, discernment, discernment. We have to have discernment. I know this is tough truth. Uh, wisdom is tough. It cuts, right? I'm a nice preacher. I like to encourage. I like to motivate. But wisdom cuts. It's sharp. You can't be wisdom without. You can't be wise not being cut. And let me tell you something else about wisdom. Wisdom isn't just to discern negativity either. You got some people, I got discernment. That's a snake. That's a snake. That's a snake. That's his name.
[Applause] But discernment knows who's not a snake too. The sermon knows who you can trust. The sermon knows who you can promote. The sermon knows who you can talk to. Which means if you're just negative about everything, that's not discernment. That's negativity. Discernment is positive. Discernment has hope. Yeah, this person is struggling, but if we prayed for them and submitted them to God, they can get to this level. Discernment is not for accusation. It's for awareness. God doesn't give you discernment. See, I'll discern a lust spirit on her. See, that ain't discernment. That's negativity. You probably discern what's on you. No. If God gave you the ability to discern a lust spirit, it's for you to intercede over it, not gossip about it.
[Applause] Discernment, discernment, discernment. It's for awareness, not accusation. And my last point: gossip. Everyone say gossip. Gossip is deadly. I'm closing. Gossip is deadly. It's deadly. It's deadly. The Bible says, "You eat the fruit that comes out of your mouth." Do you know you eat what you say? There's life and death in the power of your tongue. Use your tongue wisely. Use your tongue to be constructive, not destructive. There's power in your mouth. Watch what you say. And watch what you say about people. Stop gossiping because guess what? Good fruit and bad fruit don't come out the same elf.
Now, let me show you something. Let me tell you the issue with being a gossiper. If you're a gossiper, there's only two kind of people you're running to. You're running to someone that gossips with you. The problem with someone that gossips with you is when you leave, they gossip against you. The problem with someone that gossips with you is when you leave, they gossip against you. And then the second person you run into is someone that's not gonna gossip with you, and now they're gonna know you're a gossiper and get away from you. When someone comes to gossip with me, I may smell and I'm like, "No, I didn't like that." But in the back of my mouth, I'm like, "Let me get away from you." Because I understand that when I'm in a place of weakness and struggle, you're going to do to me what you did to them. So if you're a gossiper, you're going to drive good people away. And then people that gossip with you gonna turn around and bite you in the back when you're down and hurting and bleeding. The church is the only army that shoots at their wounded. How about you quit gossiping about somebody and help them?
[Music] Gossip, gossip. It is deadly and it is venomous. And the reason why we, we, we go and then let me tell you about, we gonna sit down, let's just hear them out. No, I'm not gonna hear them out. No, the devil is a liar. Why? Because these are my ears that God has gave me. I got to protect them. I'm not hearing that. I'm not saying you can't bring a problem, but here's the deal. I'm going to give you some rules of gossip. Let me just tell you this, Radiant Church, and I'm coming at you. Don't tell me nothing I can't quote you on. Can I quote you on that, Pastor KJ? This person is this, this. Can I quote you? Because if I can't quote you, you just handcuffed me because you gave me information I can't use. You gave me information I can't minister to. You gave me information I can't fix. Now, if there's someone in your family you want me to intercede, that's fine. But if there's someone in a church and you have an issue with them that you tell me or anyone else, you should be able to be quoted on that. You know a gossiper because they don't, everyone don't say, "I said nothing." Now, don't see us, don't, don't say I said nothing. Gossip, gossiper. You need to rebuke it. Some of you guys need to stand up and say, "Hey, I feel like you're gossiping. I want no parts of it." See, I used to always think not telling people the truth was kindness. No, the Bible says, "Open rebuke is better than secret love." Because if you don't rebuke that spirit, they're going to keep it. They need to go home knowing their gossiper so they can take that out with God. But if you don't rebuke it and stand up to it, they're going to keep repeating it. So may not want to be around me in 2022 because if I see anything that's not of the Lord, I will address it. Praise God.
[Applause] Praise God. What you say to me about another person says more to me about you than the other person. Let me say it again. What you say to me about another person says more about you than it does the other person. Now, I'm not saying you can't have a constructive, informative conversation. You know, but if you're just here to belittle someone with no results. See, I respect people that tell you how they feel. If you come to the person and tell them what you feel, that's not gossip. That's not gossip. I don't care. Art, it's people in the church. You come to me, you got a problem with me, and you tell me. I respect you. But if you tell everyone except for me, I don't. I don't care how hard the truth is. You can come and you can tell me I'm awful. I got respect for you because you're real. But if you can tell everyone how awful I am and you don't tell me, I can't respect a person like that. Yo, let's get serious. Let's get wise. Let's get diligent. Come on. Let's get ready for the things that the Lord wants to do this.