Kelly Spyker “Don’t Throw Away Your Confidence”

[00:00:05] Speaker A: Hi there and welcome back to the well, an Elam Fellowship leadership podcast. My name is Thomas and I'm so excited that you are joining us today. Today we are going to be hearing from Kelly speaker and her oasis message entitled don't throw away your confidence. In today's world, confidence is key to the church's survival. She talks about this idea that we have still so much to conquer in God. So, so as you listen for this message, be on the lookout for these ideas of living courageously, specifically that it's our responsibility, what living courageously actually is and how living courageously changes our perspective to God's perspective. I know that you're going to be impacted by Kelly's speaker, so sit back and enjoy today's episode of the well. [00:00:54] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you. Such kind words. I feel moved already. I'm so happy to be here. So thankful to, to be in the room and just so, so honored. So honored. Thank you, Pastor Phil. Thank you, Cheryl Elam Fellowship, for this privilege of, of speaking in the midst of it and I'm going to say in the midst of such distinguished people as all of you. Our pastors are here. Brother Paul and Sister Gloria. Bob Sorghe is here. We love you so much, Pastor Mike, Pastor Ron. My big brother Jonathan Evans is there in the back. And this really is such, such a family. I'm going, I'm getting to you. I'm getting to you in a minute. But yes, I'm here with my husband Andres. He's been helping me carry my iPad this morning, serving me coffee. Right, sweetie? We've been married 27 years in August, actually. Pastor Chris and Joan gave us our premarital counseling. So it's thanks to God and to them that we're still here. And I have a photo of our, of our family. There you go. Okay, you can laugh, it's fine there at the top. That's Jared, your top, right on wherever you're sitting. Jared and Adelice, our daughter in law. Jared's been married about three years, a little over three years. He's 24. And there's Lucas, our son. Lucas is 20 and he's studying at Dallas Baptist University. And there's our daughter Sofia, she's 14. There's Andres and I there at the bottom at a wedding recently, trying to act young and you know that. And there's my cat, Max, which Andres is like, why did you put the cat on there? And Max has glasses because Max, they combed his hair to make him look extra beautiful and they put him on Their social media. So I thought, well, hey, there's Max and everybody. So there you are. There's our, there's our family. And we're so, we're so, so we just so thankful. God has been so good. Yes, we live in. You can take it off now. You can take it off. Thank you. We live in, as was said already, we live in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. And part of the time also in Mexico City, about, about four hours away from, from Morelia. And I'm a second generation missionary in Mexico, daughter of American missionaries. Some of you might know them, Elam graduate. Also Robbie and Pat Evans. Those are my parents and they send their greetings, by the way. As well as my father in law, John Spiker and Speaker. Everybody's been calling us Spiker around the world. So it's kind of sticking with me. But speaker, they send their greetings as well. And I was born and raised in Mexico. And so by birth I'm Mexican. And I must admit that this is about the fifth time in my life that I'm speaking in English. So new things are happening all the time. And God is, you know, gonna help me. When we were engaged, while engaged, our pastor, brother Paul Johansen, encouraged me, strongly encouraged me to come to be a part of, of Andres, my husband's final semester at Elam. Thank you, Bonnie. Thank you. My friend Bonnie's here too. So I came up a couple months and was like sitting in on classes with Andres during his senior year. And I remember showing up to a blizzard, to a massive power outage in all of the campus and when the food trucks weren't able to get in. And when I arrived actually to Elam, it was a February, Andres was on a trip to Guatemala with Pastor Bob Sorghi. And so he wasn't there when I wasn't here when I arrived. But the day he got here a couple days later, and I remember when he arrived and I was in the dorms here in Elam Bible Institute. I don't know how you even told me you arrived because it was not even cell phones or anything. But I found out he arrived and so I, I remember and we were engaged already. And I remember being so excited to see him. Cause I hadn't seen him in several months. And I remember running up a little hill. I say it's a hill. Andres has a different opinion, but a little hill. By failing hall, if I'm, if I remember correctly. And I remember seeing him in a distance and like in the movies, running towards my beloved and I'm like, andrew, I yelled from afar and I'm running. Picture Andrew. And he was like, stiff as a board. I'm like, thinking, what's. What's wrong? Did he change his mind? He doesn't want to marry me anymore or what? And I get to him at the top of the hill, and I'm like. And he's any. And I give him a kiss because we're engaged and everything. And he says, I am not Andrew. I am Andres here. And I'm like, okay. And don't kiss me. It's not allowed. Like, I like, okay, okay. So anyway, that's okay. That's okay. That's okay. You know, it was super funny. We were able to be a part of the presbytery at the end of his senior year, and they were praying over him, and they asked him, are you engaged? And I was like, I was 18, and I was sitting in the. In the crowd. And so they called me up. And let me tell you that words were spoken over us in that day that are still being. That have been fulfilled and are still being fulfilled. After 21 years of pastoring and more than 25 years of ministry, God is just so faithful, and he fulfills his promises. He does what he says he's going to do. And I just have to say this, that no, I am not an Elam graduate. Only for a couple months that I was here, I did enjoy very much my time here. I was able to go to the Romans class with Brother Paul and. And many other things. But one of the final things I want to tell you is that I went to an apologetics class, sat in on apologetics class with. With Brother Stacy Klein, and beautiful, beautiful class. But just remember, I'm coming out of high school and never been to Bible school. Like, like nothing, you know, and so I'm. So I. For some reason, Even though I'm supposed to just be listening the class, I'm handed the final exam and I'm thinking, oh, my goodness. And I literally sat there at the desk and I looked at it, and I was like, I don't know what to do. I'm thinking to myself. And so what I did was I just wrote in very big and sincere letters, I am very sorry. And I signed it. And so I don't know how this message is going to go, but I know that God is here and he's going to help us. So anyway, why don't you turn to the person next to you and say, I'm sitting next to the person most good Looking person in the room, the best looking person say, it's bring this together. So good, so good, so good. I love it that we always add so many more things. You know, you should see women's conferences. When I say to say something to them, it goes on forever. So the title of title of my message that the Lord has put on my heart for us today is, don't throw away your confidence. Don't throw away your confidence. And I would like us to read Hebrews 10, verse 35. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. What a beautiful passage. And I see a room full of people that is perfect persevering, that does not shrink back, that will remain until the very end faithful to Jesus. You know, life is full of expected unexpected events and challenges that can very often shake our confidence. And a few months ago, on a Sunday morning, I was. I was for some reason decided to. To clean my wedding rings. I don't know, I wanted him to look extra shiny that day or something. So I was cleaning my wedding rings and I went to rinse them off, and my wedding ring went down the drain. Like, my worst nightmare come through. I don't know if there's any woman in this place. I'm like, you've seen that on tv, on social media. Like, no, Jesus, please have mercy. My ring went down the drain. And I yelled, andres was, was in the bedroom. And I said, andres, my wedding ring just went down the drain. And he's like, don't worry, I'm coming. So here comes Andres to the rescue. And he's like, shine the flashlight down the drain of the sink. I was shining the flashlight. Andres is like, give me some tweezers. And we could see the ring sitting on the prong, literally balancing on the prong of the drain. But Andres was able to pull it out. Why don't you give him a hand? He did it. My. You did it, My hero. You rescued it. Of course, he said, if it would have gone, we could gone down, we could have got the plumber and just, you know, no big deal. But I'm like, no. So he got my ring out. But sometimes we lose our confidence in the worst moment. I'm thinking, God, it's a Sunday morning. We're trying to be extra spiritual and focused. It's Sunday morning. And sometimes you lose your confidence when you, in the worst moment, when you least expect it, maybe an accident, maybe a difficulty, a challenge, an offense, a mistake. And you're walking through life and you're feeling confident about so many things. And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, something happens and our confidence is shaken. But the good thing is that God helps us recover our confidence. And at the time of Hebrews, when Hebrews was written, Christians were being persecuted. And Hebrews was written primarily to a weary. To weary and pressured believers who were wondering if following Jesus was really worth the cost. And the author reminds them that they have suffered, they have had persecution before, but they have also persevered. And now he is calling them to persevere again. And the Lord is calling, calling us to persevere again. And he tells them that in order to persevere, they need confidence. And in this verse, the, the Greek word translated to confidence is a word that, that speaks of assurance, of boldness, of courage. So when we talk about confidence this morning, I'd like to call it courageous confidence. Courageous confidence. This courageous confidence in our hearts is not a human positivity. It's a courageous confidence in who is our God. A courageous confidence in God. It is acting in spite of fear. It is acting without hesitation or shame. Because our confidence is in his ability and in his promises. And it is in the confidence of God that we walk, that we strive in life, that we continue on. Because our confidence is in Him. Him. And he has placed his power in us and what he has said he will do because his grace is upon us. Courageous confidence does not depend on the visible. It depends on the invisible God and His power within us. And so I would like to say, and if you would like to write it down, maybe do not throw away your confidence. You still have much to. To conquer in God. And I would like you to hear that not as from Kelly, but as from the Lord Himself. Do not throw away your confidence, for you still have much to do, much to conquer in God. It is for every one of us. Don't say, yeah, that's for my neighbor. No, it's for me. Do not throw away your confidence. You know, back in December, I did a girl trip with my mom and my sister for Christmas shopping. And we arrived to our destination and my mom decided to stay back and rest a little bit. But hey, we got there at 9 o' clock at night and my sister and I said, stores are open till 11, so let's go. I mean, you're coming from Mexico and you go to the US you got to take advantage of it. So I get in the car. We have. I sit down with my sister, and I'm talking. We're having fun. And I put the car in reverse, and I'm backing out, and all of a sudden, I hit the neighbor's fence. No. You know, these new cars, they're supposed to beep, you know, And I didn't hear it beep. I hit the fence. And my sister's like, oh, don't worry about it. And she's like, don't. Just tell Andres when you get back from the trip. Don't tell him right now. And I'm like, no, I can't. My conscience won't allow. I had to get out of the car. I looked at the car. I see a. It was honestly kind of a big dent. Sorry again, honey. A big dent in the car. And my sister's like, don't tell him. I'll be, no, I'm gonna tell him. No. She's like, well, let's take a picture, and you can send him the picture. So we're taking the picture of the car, and my sister's taking it, and we look at it like, no, that one looks really bad. Let's get it from this angle. We'd look at it. No, it looks a little worse than it actually is. And it took us about, I don't know, five minutes to get a perfect picture of the dent. Sent it to Andres. But I'm thinking, kelly, I mean, you've been driving for more than 30 years. Like, this is ridiculous. First five minutes of arriving to our destination, I'm wrecked in the car. And I'm thinking, I am not gonna drive anymore. Like, there's no way. No way. This is just not fair. God, this is embarrassing. And I usually tell you that's really kind of ridiculous, but that's the way we are in life. Sometimes we're like, we're doing something. We've done it many times. We've done this, we've done that, or even if something new. But you've been able to do new things in the past. And then all of a sudden, it's like, you're like, really? Really. This is happening to me. But we cannot allow a personal mistake and an external difficulty, a disillusion, a threat, an offense, an impossibility for our dreams, for what God has put in our heart to steal our courageous confidence. We cannot allow it. Isaiah 41:10 says, Fear not. This is God saying to us, fear not, for I am with you in every season. I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteousness right hand. We are not alone. Our courageous confidence is in God. And he says, do not be dismayed. I will uphold you. And so I want to give you three truths. By the way, I have no idea how much time I have so somebody can later on tell me. Like my dad used to when I was leading worship when I was a kid and he wanted me to finish, he would look at me and he'd just do this. I'm like, dad, anyway, no, please don't do that. I'll get distracted. But just so I don't go over three truths. Three truths you don't. So that you don't throw away your confidence. Or if you have thrown it away today by the grace of God, you could pick it up again. Number one, living courageously is our responsibility. Or you could say, my responsibility. Nobody can live courageously for you. It is our responsibility. Verse 35 says, do not throw away your confidence. It is our responsibility. And I was reading this this past week again, about a mom and a son who were cleaning the house together. And, you know, they had a broom, but for some reason, they only had one broom. And so they were sweeping. And then the son swept the patio. Little boy swept the patio. And then the mother, later on in the day, was wanting to sweep the kitchen, and she realized that the broom wasn't there. And so she asked her son, where's the broom? He's like, oh, Mom, I left it out on the patio. And she's like, well, could you go get me the broom, please? I need it. And he's like, but, Mom, I'm afraid of the dark. I don't want to go out on the patio. And. And she being such a wonderful mother, you know, good parents, taking advantage of every moment we have to teach our kids something. She says, oh, don't worry. Go out there in the dark. Jesus is there, too. Don't be afraid. And so he opened the door a little bit, he peeked out, and he's like, jesus, if you're out there, could you please pass me the broom? You know, could you please? So, you know, even when things are tough, even when things are like, I can't do that. I'm afraid. Do not throw away the confidence that God gave you. Do not throw away. I remember one time, Lucas, our middle son, there was a electrical storm in Morelia. We have intense electrical storms. And he came in the room one night, and he was all afraid. Like, two, three in the morning. He's like, mom, I'm afraid of the lightning. It was very small. And I'm like, oh, don't worry, Lucas. It's just Jesus playing with his flashlight. Go back to bed. Because I never wanted my kids to, like, invade my space in the, you know, two, three in the morning. It's like my space, my moment. Send him back to bed. He comes back like five minutes later and he's like, but, Mommy, I don't like Jesus's flashlight. And I didn't know what to tell him at that point. But sometimes, you know, things. Things in life. Life is tough. Things happen. But do not throw it away. It is our. It is our decision. When it says there, do not throw away means literally, do not throw it in the trash. Do not throw it. It is a personal decision to discard or fail to appreciate the worth and importance of our confidence in God. And often it's not big things that make us throw out our confidence or shrink back. It's often the very small things that happen in our day to day life. You know, I was preaching a couple months ago, and we transmit our services to different locations of the church. And I finished preaching, I thought, well, that went pretty decent, you know? Well, and one of my friends and part of my work team text me because they sent the video of my preaching to different campuses. And she texts me and she says, pastor Kelly, that was a beautiful word. I just want to let you know that you have lipstick on your teeth for a girl, for a woman, that's. That's bad. I'm like, oh, my gosh. So many people, like, forget the word lipstick on my teeth. And I told Andres, what the heck? I'm not gonna preach anymore. I can't even keep my teeth clean. You know, like, bye, preaching. By the way, if I have lipstick on my teeth, let me know. You know, I'm like, no way. Little, little things. One time I went on a trip. I don't know if this has happened to you. I packed in a hurry. I got there and I had two. I had my pair of shoes, but it was one shoe from different pair. Like, they didn't match. Has that happened to anybody? Oh, thank you. Yeah, I don't feel so bad. I'm like, what? I can't even get my shoes right. Maybe you were on the way to Oasis this morning and. And you spilled your coffee on your shirt and you're like, I can't even. I can't even get my coffee. Keep my coffee in the cup. I mean, little things. And the enemy comes and he's like, you're not worth anything. You can't even do that. You can't even keep that. So you can't even do anything. And we shrink back. Maybe you prayed for somebody that was sick and they died. It happens. And those things. We need to continue on church. We need to value our confidence, value our courage, and God decide to not despise it. Maybe you're not where you want to be as a leader. And I pray that we continue to grow. And I don't want to ever see it. Say, I'm completely where I want to be as a leader, a wife or mother, because I always want to grow. But maybe you're not even near to where you want to be. But think of how faithful God is. Think of how far you come. You're not where you were. Look where you are today. You have overcome so much. You have not been as close as you are now to answers, to prayer. You have not been where you are now. Look how far you've come. Being courageous is not humanism. It is a biblical principle necessary to follow Christ. God said to Joshua after the death of Moses, and most likely he was being shaken. In Joshua 1:9, God says to Moses to Joshua, have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you, you go. I am overcome. We are overcome by courageous confidence when we remember it's not about how able I am, but it's about how faithful God is. And even when you've had setbacks, because we all do, I just say to you this morning, keep going. There is still so much ahead. If we are alive, it's because God still has a plan and purpose and things that he wants us to do. Number two. Living courageously is persevering in obedience. I know this one's not super awesome to write down, right? Living courageously is persevering in obedience. Verse 36 of Hebrews 10. What did it say? It said, for you need perseverance. Can you say, I need perseverance? I need perseverance. For we need perseverance so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. Courage is persevering in obeying God, even when it is not easy, because it's hardly ever easy. Courage is persevering and doing the will of God and believing that we will, we will receive his promises. But often we Want to see his promises fulfilled before we persevere. Like, oh, you know, but the word says tells us to first persevere in obeying God, and then we will see his promises. But our thinking sometimes is, if I could see the answers, if I could see my family following Jesus, if I could see myself, if I could see this, then it would be much easier to persevere. But the word doesn't say that. It says, we must obey first, persevere, and then we will see his promises. And, you know, a couple. About three and a half years ago, I. I decided for the first time in my life to do exercise on a consistent basis. In my head, I did plenty of exercise because I like to shop, and that's a sport. You know, you count the steps, you burn the calories, you think a lot. And so I do exercise, but Andres and other people are like, no, but you need to do exercise on a consistent basis. So I have a friend who's a trainer, and she sends me these videos. And I remember the first time I started to do the videos, I literally felt like I was going to throw up. And I called Andres on the phone. He was on a trip. I'm like, this really is not cool. Like, I feel like I'm going to throw up. And Andres is like, oh, don't worry, sweetie, you'll get your. You'll get back in shape real soon. And I'm thinking, well, thank you. And then I pause. I'm like, but how am I going to get back in shape, shape if I was never in shape to start with, you know? But he was, like, being super positive and. But I had to. I had to believe that the trainer was telling me, you can do this, I can do this. And I've persevered, I can touch my toes, I can do many things, which for me, I could not even do as an adolescent, by the way, but now I can. You know, I'm proud of myself. Many things like that, but you have to follow instructions. Instructions are so important, and it takes courage to follow instructions. Things in life will turn out the way God said. If we persevere and follow his instructions. You're saying, oh, God, no, God doesn't do what he says because maybe we didn't follow his instructions, but if we follow his instructions, he will do. The outcome will be what he said it would be. You know, back in March, we held a conference in our church in Masvida in Mexico, in an iconic venue in Mexico City. And it was a very huge step for us to do As a church especially. Well, for Andres and I, but especially for Andres, because we had done a leadership conference for years, and before pandemic, we had, you know, grown it to, you know, maybe close to 3,000 people. But then pandemic hit, so we scaled back, and we've been doing for the last four years, I think, sweetie, a conference for about 1,200 people. But this last year, we. We felt in our heart that we needed to rent this iconic venue in Mexico City. But it's for 10,000 people and, like, oh, my goodness. You know, I felt that it was just such a step of obedience. It wasn't a personal desire. It wasn't a human ambition. It was a God instruction. And I felt that God gave us a verse and says in Psalm 25. 3 that no one that trusts in God will be put to shame. No one that trusts in God will be put to shame. Can you believe it that that place filled up? I brought a little. A short little video if you want to. Can we see that super quick? Just a couple seconds. This is March. Mexico City. [00:27:42] Speaker A: Glorious. [00:28:01] Speaker B: You could walk out of the building and do something today. Okay, that's enough. We can take it off now. But help me give God a hand of praise. He's so good. He is so good. He's so good. We persevere in obedience because our confidence is in God and our help comes from God. We. You know, speaking of courageous obedience, I just want to mention quickly two things that God put on my heart. We need to be courageous in being generous and having a generous heart. We are generous because it is the will of God and we trust in God as our purpose provider. The Bible says it is better to give than to receive, and we must step out as we are already. I know, but in courageous confidence and obedience and being generous, when. When God tells us, do this, do this. When God says, give this, give this. When God says, go, go. Because he is wanting to use us to expand and extend his kingdom, and we must be generous. God will never let us down. Never, never let us down. Sometimes generosity is not easy. And it's not just economic generosity. Generosity in love and attention and time. Sometimes it's not easy. But if we obey and practice it courageously, God will fulfill his promises. We also must obey in forgiving. You know, forgiving really lack of forgiveness really set steals our courageous confidence. It makes our lives shrink, and like a flower, we fade. We must forgive because Christ forgave us first. Sometimes an offense, sometimes a criticism strikes our confidence and. Or my confidence in Particular. And I don't want to continue to do something because I don't want to be criticized or hurt again. But I must forgive. I need to be courageous to forgive. It takes a courageous person to forgive and to continue doing what the Lord has called us to do. I don't know if you need to forgive anybody this morning, but I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. But I would just say be courageous in obedience and do that because the Lord wants to fill you with his presence. He wants to set you free. And when we have unforgiveness in our heart, we cannot see clearly. And God wants you to see clearly, and he wants you to advance. Do not let anyone or anything steal your courageous confidence today. Your courageous confidence grows when you persevere in obedience to God. Not sometimes, in every season. And I just want to say, and finish this point and go to the last one, that if you feel that you're lacking some confidence today, I would just say, get up in the name of Jesus. I say it to myself, get up, persevere, and take your obedience to a whole other level. Because when you take your obedience to a whole other level and you say, jesus, here I am, then he grows you in so many ways. When you do that, if you trust in God and obey him, he will be with you. He is with you, and you will not be put to shame. Okay, last point. If somebody wants to come to the. To the piano here. Living courageously is changing my perspective. For God's perspective may sound easy, but it is most of the time, very hard. Verse 39 Hebrews 10 says, but we are not of those who run away. We are of those who have faith. I want you to tell the person next to you, we are those who have faith. We have faith. The reality is that without Christ, I, Kelly, am the kind of person who runs away. I prefer to. To shrink back. If I could have a superpower, you know what it would be? I would love to be invisible. That'd be so awesome for so many reasons, you know? But I am preaching at this point in my life, though I've been leading worship since I was 13. I'm preaching at this point in my life because God has asked me to do it. That is the reason I'm doing it. And it's been a process of changing my perspective for God's perspective. And I'm not doing it because I necessarily want to, but because God wants me to. And in doing his will, I'm enjoying doing what I'm doing. But it's not something that I would naturally do, but God has changed my perspective for his. My perspective for so many years. We've been pastoring the church Masvida for more than, more than 21 years now. And I remember when my father in law talked to Andres and I about taking over the leadership of the church. And Brother Paul was there at that season. And I remember thinking, oh my gosh, me, like I was 20, 25, I think 24, 24. And I remember thinking right away, oh, does that mean that I have to lead up the women's ministry? Because I was super, super involved in the worship. And I remember looking at Brother Paul and saying, but does that mean I have to stop doing the worship and just do the women? It freaked me out. And he's like, no, you just need a pastor's wife is you. You just need to be yourself and do what God has called you to do. That was so freeing. But I wanted, deep in my heart, I did want to do something with the women. I deepened my heart, but at the same time I didn't, I felt like I couldn't. Like I didn't have anything to give, like I had no passion in that area. Honestly, women got on my nerves in the church, you know, I'm sorry, ladies, not anymore. The thing that I most enjoy doing at this time in my life before God and if I do it the rest of my life, I will be so happy and so privileged. I love to speak to women, but God has done just a supernatural thing in my heart towards even the women, not just the women in our church, but the woman women in general. I just, I just love to encourage women and help them rise up, who God has called them to be and just be an example of that. And I just, my perspective was I can't lead women. But God's perspective, especially in these last 10 years, has been clear and spoken over me. But I will make you, Kelly, a part of the fresh move of God amongst women. And this last year, just by the grace of God and all the glory be to him, in September, October of last year, we were able to do what we call, which is our women's ministry. And we were able to gather more than 11,000 women throughout Mexico for a night in nine different cities, just worshiping Jesus and being filled of his presence. This year we're doing 10 cities believing God for at least 12,000. God is just, you know, women come up in that and they've told me in different. Almost every year somebody comes up with their baby in that tour, we do other things throughout the year, but in that tour, Almost everybody, somebody 1, 2, 3 ladies come up and they're holding a baby. And they say, you prayed with me last year because I couldn't have a baby. And this is my baby. We prayed for a lady. It's all for God. We prayed for a lady last year in the tour, she came up, she said, my friend is in the hospital tonight. She has cancer and she's dying. And she says she might pass away tonight. Could we please record a prayer for her? She's unconscious, she's intubated. We set a prize. I grabbed the ladies all around. I didn't even know the ladies. I'm like, you come and pray with me for this lady. And we prayed for her and got word in the week that she woke up that she was doing much better. God was healing her. That's not because of Kelly. It's just because I'm saying God, here I am. Whatever you want me to do, change my perspective. For God's perspective, we must change our perspective for God's perspective, where we're not going to get anywhere. We're not going to do anything. We're just going to shrink back. We're going to walk away. Stop looking at your ability and start looking at the ability of God and his faithfulness. Moses. His perspective was, I cannot speak, but God's perspective was, Moses, I made your mouth, Moses. Perspective was, nobody's gonna believe me, God, when I do those signs and wonders, but God, when I what you're gonna do them. But God says that I will perform the miracles. Maybe your perspective is, I can't be a good father, I can't be a good mother, I can't be a good doctor, I can't be a good pastor, I can't be a good leader. But God's perspective is, I will be with you. I am with you, and those that trust in me will not be put to shame. Maybe your perspective, our perspective is so often we are limited, but God's perspective is I am infinite. Maybe your perspective, as mine has often been, is I am weak. But God's perspective is, I am strong and I am with you. And my power is perfect, perfected in your weakness. Maybe your perspective is, this is impossible. But God's perspective is, and we know it. For God, nothing is impossible. So the question is not who am I? The question is, and to be able to get our courageous confidence back, the question is, who is God? Not who am I? The question is, who is God? Ephesians 3:20. Finishing up here. Ephesians 3:20. This verse was on our wedding invitation and it's been an anthem over our life. Over Elam, I believe it. And over Elam Fellowship. Ephesians 3:20. Now, to him who is able, to him who is able. Don't you love that? To him who is able to carry out his purpose and do super abundantly. More than all that we dare ask or think, think infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes or dreams, according to his power that is at work within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Why don't you stand? Church pastors, leaders, friends, do not throw away your courageous confidence. Could be something big, something small. Maybe you've been thinking, this is the last time I'm going to a leadership conference because I'm not good at this, because I don't know, you know, God brought you here to say, keep going, continue, persevere. And if you've thrown it away, we have such an amazing God who is so good, who does not say, oh well, I'll see how you can pick it up again. We say in Mexico, God is here and he reaches with it. He helps us to pick up what is lost. And God redeems. And God takes us from glory to glory. He is coming back soon, church. Jesus is coming back soon and he needs a bold church to reach everyone in the nations. He needs a bold church. It is not time to shrink back. It is time to walk forward, to live courageously, to persevere in obedience, even if it seems crazy. It is time to change our perspective, whatever it is, your season, your age, change your perspective for God's perspective. In the name of Jesus, do not throw away your confidence because there's still much to conquer in Jesus. If you'd like to close your eyes, please, I want to say this prayer over us. If you would like, you could raise your hands in front of you or to heaven, or whatever you would like to do. Close your eyes, just say, I would like to pray this first of all, Holy Spirit, come. Thank you. Because you are here, God, today we receive from you the power of a renewed courageous confidence to advance your kingdom. We pick it up if we have thrown it away. We put our eyes on you, the author, the perfecter of our faith. And today, by your grace and your power that is perfected in our weakness, we pray that you would transform us to live courageously, to obey continuously and focus daily on your faithfulness and not on our ability. Because There is still so much more to be done, so much more to overcome, so much more to conquer, so many lost to bring back. And we say together to God be the glory in Jesus Christ. Can you say that with me? To God be the glory in Jesus Christ in our lives, in our families, in our cities, in our workplaces, in our churches, ministries throughout all generations and forevermore. [00:42:32] Speaker A: Thank you for watching. We have so many more amazing episodes to share with you both upcoming and on our website so make sure you check them out wherever you get your podcasts. For even more amazing content go to elamfellowship.org and check out the Hub. Not only are all the well podcasts there but there is so much more content for you and if this message was meaningful to you, please show your support by liking, subscribing and sharing this channel and drop your thoughts down below. It really does make a big difference for us. So until next time I'm Thomas and we will see you around the well.