Learn To See What God Sees When He Looks At You

Let me ask you a question. What do you see when you look at yourself? When you look in the mirror, do you have the ability to look at the person you see and say and mean, I love you? Do you have the ability to look in the mirror and say to the person on the other side, I believe in you. You're a winner. You are a champion made in the image of God. Do you have the ability to do that or would that cause you to wince? I believe one of the biggest problems most people face is the fact that they don't see themselves how God sees them. This passage that I'm gonna read to y'all this morning, I was so confused by it for such a long time. It's interesting how when I first came to Christ and I started going to this Christian school, the first thing that happened in the morning, every morning in chapel, we would have to read a passage of scripture out loud for a whole month. And then the next month it would be a different scripture and then the next month it would be a different scripture. So the first month, it was Psalm 1. My first month in Christian school was Psalm 1. So we read Psalm 1 out loud every day for a month. Then the second month, it was Isaiah 55, I think it was five through 12. And then the third month, it was Psalm 8. And I read Psalm 8 and I'm like, I don't get this. I didn't understand what it was talking about. And maybe you're that way or maybe you do understand what it's talking about. Maybe you read Psalm 8 and you're like, hallelujah. But that wasn't me, I was like, what are we talking about? So here's what it says. I wanna talk to you today about this subject, how God sees you. And you need to learn to see yourself the way God sees you. Because how God sees you is how you really are. So here's what it says. "'O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name "'in all the earth. "'Who has set thy glory above the heavens? "'Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings "'hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, "'that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. "'When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, "'the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, "'what is man that thou art mindful of him? "'Or the son of man that thou visitest him? "'For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels "'and has crowned him.'" That's wild, has crowned him. And by the way, the word man doesn't mean male, it means human, has crowned him with glory and honor. Let me ask you a question. Do you feel like you are a man or a woman who is wearing a crown that God himself placed on your head? "'Has crowned him with glory and honor. "'Thou madest him to have dominion "'over the works of thy hands. "'Thou has put all things under his feet. "'Are you living like that? "'All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beast of the field, "'and the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, "'and whatsoever passes through the paths of the sea. "'O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name "'in all the earth.'" I'm almost exhausted reading that. Because in order for you to see yourself that way, in order for me to see myself that way, it's gonna require a lot of attention and a lot of intention. I am not gonna see myself wearing a crown of glory and honor that God placed on my head incidentally. I'm not going to do it by happenstance. I'm not going to do it as an afterthought. Something will change in you when you begin to look at yourself like God looks at you. All of that self-doubt, all of that self-loathing, all of that self-contempt will begin to evaporate when you learn to look at yourself and see what God sees. It blows my mind. So what would happen to the man or the woman who took God's word for who they are? Maybe you wouldn't believe you were the idiot that your college professor attempted to make you believe you were when they were using you to validate their own intelligentsia by making it so, and bragging about how nobody passes my class. And that makes you a good teacher? Maybe you won't think you're as stupid or as useless as your parents who were not maybe good parents told you you weren't. Maybe you won't buy into that anymore. Maybe you won't think you're too short, too tall, too fat, too thin, too light, too dark, or too whatever. The people who felt insecure when you were a child told you you were too much of because it made them feel better about who they thought they weren't. Maybe if you'll get your ID, your identification, from the ultimate identification, from the ultimate identity, instead of you getting your identity from somebody who had something to gain by giving you something to lose, maybe it'll change how you move and how you ebb and how you flow in the earth. Maybe you'll stop being so hesitant. Maybe you'll stop being so apprehensive. Maybe you'll stop being filled with anxiety and you'll replace that anxiety with joy when you begin to see yourself how God sees you. When I was a child, I had a lot of self-loathing. I didn't like, I would've chose to be anybody but me. I walked funny. Not funny, ha ha, funny, peculiar. Okay, I walk with a brace on my leg. Kids made fun of me because it made them feel better about the things they felt bad about, but I didn't know that. I thought the problem was me. I've got six brothers who all have normal names, Jeff, Mike, Dwayne, Jeff, Mike, Rob, Dwayne, Derek, and Mark, and Myron. And I know that's not what you hear when you hear my name, but that's what I heard when I heard my name when I was a child. I heard Myron. That's how it sounded to me like this is, why do I have to have a name that nobody else has? I hated it. I did not like it. I hated it. I hated my middle name so much, Freddie, Myron Freddie. Come on, you could've gave me one good, well, I got golden, so that was good, but you could've given me something else to go with. I hate it. I love my name now, Myron and Freddie. Love all of it. Otherwise, I wouldn't tell you the story, but as I live and breathe, I'd keep it to myself. As I live and breathe. My children did not know I so much as had a middle name until they were teenagers. That's how much I hated it. My sister-in-law, Martha, oh, she watches this. She's hilarious. She's a comedy show all in her own right. She doesn't even need any help. She doesn't even need any supporting cast. She's hilarious. She said, Myron, what's your middle name? Myron F. Golden, what's your middle name? I'm not telling you, Martha. She said, well, I'm gonna just make one up then. Make one up? She called me Myron Francis for the longest time. She did. What's up, Myron Francis? What's up, Martha? I'm not telling you my middle name. I don't care what you call me. You could've called me Myron Francine. You still ain't getting, but anyway. But we have all of this baggage that we carry, and we think it means something, and we think it's real, and it's all imagined. God himself is paying attention to you. That blew my mind. What is man that thou art mindful of him? He ain't mindful. Why would you be mindful of me? I'm barely mindful of me. What is the son of man that thou visit? Okay, so here's what would happen if you learned to see yourself the way God sees you. You would recognize the excellence of God's supremacy. If you learned to look at yourself the way God looks at you, you would recognize the supremacy of God. Why? How does looking at me the way God sees me help me recognize the supremacy of God? Because God knows more about you than anyone, and he loves you anyway. My mom loved me. You know what she never did? Okay, so when we were little, I love thinking about this stuff. So my dad's the toughest guy I've ever met in my life. Had hands as hard as the wood on this chair. And I saw my dad one time. We were at work. I was working with him. He cut his finger with a circular saw. He said, boy, bring me that tape. What? Taped up his finger with some electric. Ain't you gonna go to the hospital and get some stitches? I ain't nobody got time for that. Right? That's my dad, right? So my mom was a beautician, and so she needed some practice. So she braided our hair. My dad came in and caught my mom. Woman, what are you doing? You can't braid. That's our boy. You can't braid his hair. Oh, I'm serious. My dad was not playing. My mom loved me so much, she braided my hair. But guess what? She didn't count the number of hairs I have on my head, but God did. He said, not one of your hairs on your head is gonna fall to the ground without my okay. If you could see yourself the way God sees you, you would recognize the supremacy of God. I think one of the biggest problems that we have in modern day churchianity is that we have made man too big and God too small. We've shrunk down God to make him more relatable to little puny men. But do you realize that the only chance any of us have at being better is by recognizing that we are made in the image of a great God. I'm not great because of my education. I'm not great because of the color of my skin. I'm not great because I'm a man and not a woman. I'm not great because I happen to be hilarious or at least think I am. I am great because I am made in the image of a great God. And here's what I know. I know that I have purpose in my life. Do you know how I know that? Because I'm still here. God's not done with me. And if I'm done with me, I'm confused and I'm not seeing me how he sees me. You know what the scriptures say? But man, you don't know how I messed up. You don't know how I messed up my family. You don't know how I messed up my business. You don't know how I messed up my money. I'm just in such bad shape right now. You don't know what I've done, man. I'm just a terrible person. Yeah, okay, good. You're a terrible person. Yeah, got it. Locked and loaded. But guess what? Here's what the scripture says. A living dog is better than a dead lion. And unto him that is joined to all living, there is hope. You know what hope is? Do you know what hope is? Hope is a well-founded, well-grounded expectation for the future. The reason you are here is because God believes that you've got something important to do that still needs to be done that can only be done by you. And if I've been sent by the supreme God of the universe and given an assignment that he believes I can do, how dare I believe I can't do it? Who am I to disagree with God about what I can do? And he made me. And he made me to do the thing he made for me to do. God put the garden in Eden before he put the man in the garden to dress it and keep it. God put the assignment here before he put the assignee here. What is man that thou art mindful? God believes in you and your ability to do the thing he made you for or you'd already be gone. We walk around, well, you know, I'm just not good at anything, I'm just me, you know, I'm not that smart and I don't know how to do this, I don't know how to do that. So God's lying. That's what you're saying, right? God's lying. So your unbelief in you means God lied about who you are and you're really as terrible as you think you are. You're not as great as he said you are. I'm just checking. Somebody, as my dad would say, something in the milk ain't clean, as my mom would say, if it's a lie, you told it. If you realized how God saw you, you would recognize the supremacy of God. The word confidence. I'm gonna write it on the board. I just, I love this word, it's one of my favorite words. Confidence, C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-C. Confidence, what's the root word of confidence? Confide. What's the word confide mean? Trust. You know why you don't have confidence? Because you don't trust what God said about you. You don't have confidence because you believe what your first grade, second grade, third grade, for me it was fourth grade teacher told you or your guidance counselor who told you you're gonna end up in prison or dead. I don't know, I guess that's guidance. Kinda doesn't feel like it. Maybe you trust their word more than you trust God's word. Maybe you believe you're as stupid as your teacher tried to make you feel. Maybe you think you're as small as all the people who made fun of you your whole life attempted to make you feel. But somebody, somewhere's wrong and I don't think it's God. Why don't you trust what God says about you instead of trusting what some human says about you? If you could just see how God sees you, you would go forth with vim and vigor and vitality. You would run towards your future, charging it like a great champion like David ran at Goliath. If you could only see how God sees you. Saul looked at David and said, you're just a little kid. He's been a man of war since he was a little kid. That's how Saul saw David. Saul said, you're too small. But if you wanna fight the giant, I'll let you just take my armor. David put on his armor, he couldn't even move. He said, I cannot go with these. I have not yet proved them. He took the armor off, got his sling and on his way to Goliath, he picked up five smooth stones out of the brook. And then he ran towards the giant. I am here to tell you as someone who's taken off all of the armor of somebody else that they tried to put on me and I am running towards the giants that opposed me with passion, knowing that I'm going to win, not because I'm me, but because God is he who I'm in covenant with. And he's already told me I'm more than a conqueror. I can't go through life feeling defeated if I'm more than a conqueror, unless I don't know who I am based on whose I am. If you could see how God sees you, you'd recognize the supremacy of God. But not only that, you would recognize the excellence of God's supremacy, but you would also rest in the essence of God's superiority. Now I don't have anything to worry about. That will keep him in perfect peace. His mind has stayed on me. It's really interesting how, like, if we learn to read the Bible in context, we get so much more fuel from it. We're all familiar with Philippians 2, verse 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Well, that's true if, see, what do you mean if, Myron? That's just true. Well, it's true if you were practicing verses one through 12 but if you're ignoring one through 12, you can't claim set 13. You gotta, four through, here's what it says in Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four, verses four through 12. I'm not gonna do all of them just for the sake of time. But you gotta see how powerful this is. Like, we worry because we forgot we're not here by ourselves. Here's what it says. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. Now, you know what we do? We read that and we say, that sounds good. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. We read it and we just keep on moving. We don't slow down enough to realize that re, the prefix re means to do again. Rejoice, rejoice. Again have joy in the Lord when, always. And then it says, and again I say rejoice. Or again I say again have joy. Have joy, again have joy in the Lord always and again I say again have joy. That'd be a good song, again have joy. Here's what he said, be joyful. How we all know sometimes trouble comes and trouble is painful. And it's hard to have joy when you're painful unless you do it God's way. What does that even mean? Well, here's what it says. It says, the very next verse tells us how to do it. Here's what it says. Let your moderation be known unto all men for the Lord is at hand. Let your moderation be known unto all, that used to really confuse me. What is moderation? Moderation is self-control. What does that have to do with rejoicing? Only, you ever think? How? It says, let your moderation be known unto all men for the Lord is at hand. What that is telling us is the thing that we are supposed to use our moderation or our self-control for is to remind ourselves that the Lord is with me. He is at hand. At hand, he's here, he's with me. He's here now. He's where? Here. When? Now. So I use my moderation to remind myself that the Lord is with me. So it doesn't matter if I'm in the unemployment line, the Lord is with me. It doesn't matter if I'm at the grocery store wondering what food to put back because I don't have the money, the Lord is with me. It doesn't matter if it's the end of the month and the first is coming and I don't have the money for my house payment, the Lord is with me. And if I'm more aware of the pain of the circumstance than I am the promise of the Savior, then I'm gonna have anxiety and not joy. But when I'm more aware of the presence of the Savior than I am the pain of the circumstance, I'm going to have joy. Why? Because in his presence is fullness of joy. The joy doesn't come from what I'm going through. It doesn't go, it doesn't, the joy doesn't come from what's happening around me or what's happening in me or what's happening to me. The joy comes from who's with me while I'm going through it. It was being aware of the presence of the Lord that caused David to run toward the giant that everybody else ran from. It was being aware of the presence of the Lord that caused Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to stand. It's being aware of the presence of the Lord that caused Daniel to keep praying even though he knew he was gonna be thrown in the lion's den. Do you understand if we could see ourselves how God sees us, we would rest in the essence of God's superiority. God was so much greater than the fire of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace that he just made the fire kill some folk and not even make the other folks smell like smoke. That's the God we serve. The God we serve can let you walk around in a fire that consumed the people who threw you in. The God we serve can cause you to walk on the water that threatened to destroy your life. When you recognize that God is greater than any principle, see, people make the mistake of thinking God does the right thing because it's right. They missed the point. The thing that God did is right because God did it. You know what I'm talking? I used to be confused when God told the children of Israel when they were coming out of Egypt, spoil the Egyptians. I want you to go borrow all their gold and borrow all their jewelry and you're not giving it back. No, God told them to get their compensation that they worked 400 years for. But it was right because God told them to do it. I'd read the story about how God told Saul to wipe out the Amalekites and to kill every man, every woman, every boy, every child, every girl, every infant, every suckling, every dog, every cat, every cow, every sheep, every lamb. What did the animals do? It was right because God said it. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Hath not the potter power over the clay to make one lump unto honor and another dishonor? It's God doesn't do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. What God did was the right thing to do because God did it. God is superior to principles. They belong to him. We try to make God fit into our standard. God gave us a standard because we ain't him. Okay, but if you could see yourself how God sees you, you would be redeemed by the endowment of God's salvation because in of yourself, you're not good, but then again, neither am I because the scripture says there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. As it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No, man is basically good. Man is basically good at deceiving himself into believing that he's basically good. Man is basically a sinner and there's no amount of religion and there's no religion and there's no number of religious deeds or personal agency that you are going to take that's going to wash away your sins. In fact, if you only did good deeds from this day forward and never did another bad deed, you would probably be one of the most noble and great human beings who ever lived, righteous human beings who ever lived, but that still wouldn't be enough because the good deeds you do from this day forward don't undo the deeds you did in the past. If you only knew, if you could only see yourself how God sees you, hopeless and helpless apart from a savior, you will be redeemed by the endowment of God's salvation. For such an high priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sin, then for the sins of the people. This he did once when he offered up himself. For by grace, grace means a gift, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that, that faith is not even of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. God gave you the gift of faith to receive the gift of grace, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he has saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. God didn't save me because of me, he saved me in spite of me. I remember when my friend first witnessed to me, my friend Stan Harris, he first witnessed to me when we were teenagers. We're at Pete Smith's house, we just got done practicing karate. He said, hey man, can I show you, if you die today, you know for sure you go to heaven? I was so shocked, we're like, what kind of question is that? I said, no, I wouldn't go to heaven now. I'd go somewhere, but heaven ain't on the list. I wasn't confused, I knew I wasn't a good person. Wouldn't even try to be a good person. Boys just wanna have fun, no, I'm just kidding. No, I wouldn't even try to be a good person. I was an angry person, I was a fighter. I'd cuss you out at the drop of a hat and sometimes drop two hats. I was not a good person. He said, can I show you some verses from the Bible? Sure, my mom taught me to respect church people. Showed me some scriptures. He said, so would you like to receive Jesus? Man, I can't do that. I was like, I can't do that, man, I can't do that, man. I'm not gonna play with God, I'm not gonna play with God. I'm a bad dude, I am not a good person. I gotta get myself together, I can't do that. You know what that's like? That's like getting hit by a car, laying in the middle of the street, bleeding out. Somebody said, let me call an ambulance. No, don't call an ambulance, I got blood on my clothes. Let me go home, get cleaned up first. No, this ain't that. You don't fix yourself up to get ready for Christ. You recognize what terrible shape you are in and there's nothing you can do to fix yourself up and you let him come do it. If you could see yourself as the sinner that God sees, who can't fix your own eternal predicament, you would be redeemed by the endowment of God's Savior, of God's salvation that only comes through Christ. That's why Jesus said, I am the way, not a way, the truth, not some truth, not my truth, your truth, his truth, her truth. I am the truth, I am the life, not a life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Jesus said, it's me and me alone or nothing, okay? But if you could see yourself as God sees you. See, here's the problem with a lot of Christians. They think salvation is the end game. Salvation is not home plate. Salvation is first base. That's a baseball analogy for those of you who might have thought it was football, okay? It's first base, which means what? It's the first step in your new relationship with God. Yeah, but I got saved so I can go to heaven. No, you got saved so you can make a difference on the earth. Which brings me to my next point. If you could see yourself like God sees you, you would represent as an expression of God's strength. Remember what it said in Philippians chapter four? I never finished that. So now we're back to Philippians chapter four. Thank you for reminding me, Lord, appreciate that. So rejoice in the Lord all the way. And again, I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men for the Lord is at hand. What does that mean? That means while people are watching you go through your trial, the thing that they should notice the most is that you are not alone. How are they going through that with so much peace and joyfulness? How's that possible? The thing that people should notice the most when they see you going through difficulty is that you ain't going through that difficulty by yourself. Remember what Nebuchadnezzar said? Did not we throw three men into the fire? Bound into the midst of the burning fire first? They said, true, okay. Well, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire in the form of the fourth is like the son of God. The thing that should be most evident to the people who see you in a trial is the fact that you are not there by yourself. You would be a representative of God's strength when you're weak. You would live the kind of life that makes the kind of difference that when people see it, they know there's no universe in any galaxy that's ever existed where you could do that by yourself. If you could see you how God sees you. Like if I looked at myself through the lens of my lidentity, all the things, all the people around me, all my life told me I am not, I'd go hide in a booth in the back in the corner in the dark somewhere and never let anybody see my face. Every time I go outside, I had on a raincoat and a hoodie, and some sunglasses and a scarf. I wouldn't want anybody to see my face. If I bought into the lidentity that the cultural hypnotic societal mechanism tried to give me, what's a lidentity? All the stuff people told you you're not? I don't want to have a lidentity. I want to have an identity. I want my identity to come from the ultimate identity. I want all of my I ams to represent the I am. That's why I don't ever say I am so stupid. That misrepresents the I am. I am, no, I am poor. I'm not poor. Scriptures, let the weak say I am. Okay. What if taking God's name in vain, because vain is empty, waste. What if taking God's name in vain is attaching something to your I am-ness that does not represent God? I'm such an idiot. No, I'm not. I'm such, oh my goodness, I'm such a terrible, okay, watch it. I am not a good father, watch it. I'm not a good mother, watch it. I'm not a good wife, watch it. I'm not a good husband, watch it. So, let your moderation be known unto all men. So he said, first be joyful. Then he said, be willful. Willfully aware of the presence of the Lord. And then you know what he said after that? And be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. Here's what he said. Don't be careful or full of anxious care, but be prayerful. And if you don't be careful, but be prayerful and thankful, here's what'll happen. You will be peaceful. Because the next thing it says is, and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus. What's the next verse say? It says, be mindful. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Oh, be mindful of what? Things that are pure, just, honest, right, good, lovely, of good report. Oh, Myron, is that why you don't watch the news? Yep, there's no good reports on it, so I don't watch it. Why? Because God told me to be mindful of things of a good report. So I don't wanna watch a movie where people are getting their heads blown off. Why? That's not just good, right, honest, pure. I don't wanna see that. So I don't wanna watch two people that are, I don't wanna watch two people in bed with each other. I don't wanna see that. I don't wanna watch television shows where men are kissing men and women are kissing women. I don't wanna see that. I'm done. Why? Because God told me what to think about and be mindful. And he said, and then Paul goes in verse nine through 12, he says, you've already seen me exemplify this, so the things you've seen me do, you do. And then he says, but when you come, bring me what you're gonna bring me, but I don't speak this in respect of want. I don't speak this because I need it, but so that you may abound. I'm gonna let you give me a gift so that you may abound. And here's what Paul said. Paul said, I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. I've learned whatsoever state I'm in, therewith to be content. Now, a lot of people wanna claim that just because, a lot of people wanna claim that out of laziness, right? They live a life of lack and they've gotten comfortable in a life of lack and they say, but I've learned whatsoever state I'm in, therewith to be content. How do you know? You've not been in enough states. You only know how to be abased. You don't know how to abound. How do you know you can be content when you're abounding if you've never abounded? Paul said, I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. I've learned whatsoever state I'm in, therewith to be content. He said, he didn't say, I've never had anything and I'm never gonna have anything. I've learned whatsoever state I'm in, therewith to be content. That's not what he said. And then he said, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. So if you're not practicing all those verses that came up to that, shut up about verse 13. If you could see yourself, how God sees you, you would represent as an expression of God's strength. But not only that, you would rule as an extension of God's sovereignty. Remember what it said in the verse that really tripped me out? What is man that thou are mindful of him? The son of man that thou busiest him. For thou has made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honor. What if every day when you woke up, you would recognize the God of glory, put a crown of glory and honor on my head. How would that change how you operate? Do you understand the whole Bible is a book about a king, a kingdom, a royal family, and the culturalization of a foreign land called earth. That's what the whole Bible's about. That's why when God made man in the garden, the first thing he gave him was kingdom authority. The first thing God ever said to man was be fruitful, do multiply, do replenish the earth, do subdue it and have dominion. First thing, why is God putting a crown on your head, men? Because he made you to be the king of your thing. He gave you an assignment. When we yield to God, what is, by the way, what is the kingdom of God? Let me say that. What is the kingdom of God? I believe that the kingdom of God is I yield to God as the sovereign king of my life. He owns my life. When I yield to God as the sovereign king of my life, guess what he does? He makes me the king over an assignment in his kingdom. So I'm one of the king's kings. That's why Jesus is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. I'm one of the kings. I'm one of the king's kings. Ladies, you are the queen of your scene. God saved us to make us a nation of priests and kings. So God wants you to be the king of your thing. He wants you to be the queen of your scene. But you have to yield to God. And when you yield to God, he gives you an assignment to rule over. And then you rule over that assignment and he wants you to rule over that assignment when you rule over it for the purpose of serving every human being you come in contact with. So God wants you to be the same thing Christ was. What is that? A king who's a servant. A servant who's a king. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, which was what? Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. Oh, he's a savior who's a servant. He's a sovereign who's a servant. I'm supposed to serve people. When I get in your presence, I'm not supposed to be looking for ways for you to serve me. I'm supposed to be looking for ways that I can serve you. So if you could see yourself like God sees you would rule as an extension of God's sovereignty. The reason I am in charge of something on the earth is because someone is in charge of me while I'm on the earth. And I'm supposed to use the thing he put me in charge of to serve humanity. That's why I'm here. Oh, by the way, don't look at me like that. That's why you're here too. And then lastly, if you could see yourself how God sees you, you will renew your mind through the empowerment of God's spirit and God's scripture. You will replace your worldly thinking with wordly thinking. You know, it's fascinating. I did a video one time called get the L out of your mind because there's one letter difference between the word world and the word word. And that's the letter L. World, W-O-R-L-D, word, W-O-R-D. And we need to replace our world thinking with word thinking. The scripture says it like this. I beseech you or I beg you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. It's reasonable for you to do that. I really believe that that is painting a picture for us that our life is supposed to be a burn offering for the Lord. Now burn offering in the Old Testament was a dead offering. They would offer it up, they would kill it and they would burn the whole thing. They wouldn't consume any of it. We're just saying all of this belongs to you. But just like they use fire to burn the burn offering in the Old Testament, we are supposed to use the energy of our lives and burn it as a sacrifice to our God. Are y'all picking up what I'm putting down? And so now I'm using my energy so that my life burns as a continual burn offering to the Lord. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercy of God you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. And then it says and be not conformed to this world. Conformed means to be made like something with pressure from the outside like a cookie cutter. You're conformed to it. There's pressure from the outside to make you be like it. But be transformed. Don't be conformed but be transformed. How? By the renewing of your mind. You know what that word renew means? It means renovate, renovate your mind. Have you ever renovated anything? Do you know what you have to do when you renovate stuff? You have to tear out all the old stuff. You don't put the new stuff in on top of the old stuff. I think one of the biggest problems we got right now in modern day Churchy Annie, we got too many people trying to tag Bible verses on top of their cuss words. Right? Trying to get God to bless their fornication. And their adultery. And they're lying, they're cheating, and they're gambling. God help me win this hand. Really? Like y'all are laughing, I'm serious. I'm serious. Y'all, I'm not lying. You know, preachers don't talk about sin anymore. It's when everybody feel good about who they are. God loves you. Well, God loves who he loves. But he's given us some things to do. And guess what? We can't do his part and he ain't gonna do ours. It is our job as followers of Christ to actively and intentionally renew our mind and replace the world's thinking with the word of God. I rip out all the philosophies of the world, all the ideas of the world, and every time I find something that contradicts the word of God, here's what the scripture says, I cast it down. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to what? The obedience of Christ. Who is Christ? The word. See, Myron, why are you talking about this? Because here's what I believe. I believe if you could see yourself the way God sees you, you'd stop making excuses. You'd stop hiding from your assignment. You'd stop digging your heels into the past and you'd march boldly into the future if you could see yourself the way God sees you. You'd stop saying things like that's just the way I am or this is all I know how to do. You'd stop making excuses and you'd start being an example. What is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man that thou busiest him? For thou madest him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honor. Let's start acting like we believe we are who God said we are instead of who the enemy and his minions said we aren't. I hope this word blesses you. And I look forward to seeing you on our next Bible study or our next video. In the meantime, in between time, stay blessed by the best. We'll see you soon. Bye for now.