BE, DO, HAVE: Aligning Your Life and Business with Gods Plan

What if aligning your life and business with a divine blueprint could transform everything? Tune in to discover how the "Be, Do, Have" principle can guide you to genuine success. We promise that you'll learn how to set meaningful goals by reverse-engineering God's plan without the need for shortcuts, embracing the wisdom of Proverbs 21:5.

This profound connection between faith, identity, and purpose as a Christian entrepreneur is not just about achieving goals—it's about seeing your work as worship and engaging in a cultivation process where patience and perseverance bear fruit.

Expect to hear heartfelt experiences about the blessings that come with obedience to God, and why prioritizing faith over material success can lead to true fulfillment. Learn about striking a balance between humility and gratitude, acknowledging that talents and successes are gifts from above. We explore the dynamic of expecting great things from God while trusting His timing, encouraging you to steward your gifts well and remain faithful to His plan. Through it all, we emphasize that material success should never overshadow gratitude and recognition of God's role in our lives.

Chapters

• 0:00 God's Design for Life and Business
• 7:56 Discovering Your Unique Identity in Christ
• 18:25 Embracing God's Identity and Calling
• 28:19 Blessings Through Obedience to God
• 33:52 Trusting God and Expecting More

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey guys, I got a treat for you today. Every single week inside of our Christian Entrepreneur Club, we run a weekly Bible study and oftentimes I give a message inside of that and sometimes God speaks to me so profoundly and gives me a download. Man, I should really post this on the Christian Entrepreneur Podcast For all my Christian Entrepreneur Club members. You guys have heard this message, but many of you have requested to hear it again and we recorded the actual video recording inside of the Christian Entrepreneur Club course area but to everyone else that's tuning into this podcast. I really felt like I needed to get this message to you guys. So today I'm actually following this part of this little intro I'm recording. I'm just going to upload the audio from the training that I ran and I encourage you guys to press in and take notes if you can on this, because it's a powerful message about if we be who God has called us to be and we do what God has called us to do, we will have what God has called us to have. But there's some special treats for you inside of this message. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, taking time to create and prepare it and let me know what you guys get from it and if you get value from it, share it from another person. And if you want to get involved with our Christian Entrepreneur Club, there's also links in the podcast where you can join a call with me I run every week or just watch a recorded version and learn more about our organization and really this movement we're creating of doing business God's way and creating and multiplying wealth for the kingdom, but not being alone in the process. And that's why we created this community to serve you. It's why I do this podcast, it's why we post on YouTube, it's why we pour out content on social media, because we want to equip the body of Christ to be highly successful and who God has called you to be. Enjoy, guys, and the message that I have for you guys today is be do have In order to live in the blessings of God. It's important that we understand his order for it to happen In business. His order for it to happen In business.

Speaker 1: 2:25

If we want to hit a goal, it's best to set a target right. So in our businesses all of you guys are business owners we have goals for our revenue. We have goals for our client acquisitions. We have different targets that we set in our business and often people that really understand business, you guys understand we usually have to reverse engineer that target or that goal right. They say you know, set a goal and then work your way backwards, set a 10-year vision for your life and reverse engineer it back so you know what you need to do every day, every week, every month, every year to be on course to hit the target or hit the goal. So let's reverse engineer God's design for our lives and that's what I want to bring to you guys today, because all of us want to have incredible lives. We want to have successful businesses right. Every single one of you on this call. You want to be successful in your business.

Speaker 1: 3:23

We heard many stories of God, stories opening this up around that and believing God and having faith. But wanting to be successful in the world, we want to have financial prosperity. All of us want to make more money. We want to be more successful. We want to have loving and healthy families, good relationships with our spouses, with our children, with our families and our loved ones. We want to have longevity with our health, with our children, with our families and our loved ones. We want to have longevity with our health right. We want to live a long time and have an incredible and healthy life where we get to experience as much of it as we can. We want a legacy that lives beyond us.

Speaker 1: 3:56

These are just a few things that I thought of as I was diving into this. But here's the thing the secular world wants to sell us get-rich-quick schemes, wants to sell us tricks, hacks or shortcuts to have these things in our life. In fact, there are billions and billions of dollars generated every single year selling people the idea that they can shortcut their way to these things. But that's not God's design at all. As believers, we know that it doesn't work that way. Proverbs 21.5 says the plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. Guys, there's no shortcuts to God's blessing. There's no way that you get to shortcut your way to build a successful business. There's strategy, there's wisdom, there's tactics. There's things that we need to implement in our lives and our businesses to have results. But I'm telling you right now there's no shortcut to achieving these things in our life. We have to actually do what God has called us to do as excellent as we can, and trust God with the outcomes that we have.

Speaker 1: 5:16

In a few weeks, I'm going to actually be running a goal setting workshop inside of the Christian Entrepreneur Club on December 19th, and I really encourage you guys to be on that call if you can, because I'm going to share a framework with you that has leading and lagging measures. If you've ever heard of this, we actually can't control results or outcomes in our life at all. It's actually a fallacy. I don't know if you guys knew that, but you can't actually control the results that you get in your life. The only thing that you can control is the inputs, the leading measures that go into something, that create the lagging outcomes from it. Every action Newton's law has an equal and opposite reaction.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Now let me show you where I'm going with this and why I set it up this way, because the same principles apply to every area of our life. We can't have until we do, and we can't do until we know what to do, and we don't know what to do until we know who we are. So if we be who God has called us to be, we can do what God has called us to do and we can have what God has called us to have right. You know Nicholas shared earlier. You know I can keep going making money this way in sales, but I feel that God is calling me a different identity and out of that different identity, his actions, his business, the things he does in the world will shift because they'll come into alignment with who God has called him to be. You guys catching this. And then, once we operate out of that place of who God created us to be, we can do what God has called him to be. You guys catching this, and then, once we operate out of that place of who God created us to be, we can do what God has called us to do and therefore we can reap and have what God wants us to have. So, by being who God created us to be and living out of the calling he has on our life, we can be, do and have.

Speaker 1: 7:02

God's design for your life involves becoming who he created you to be, doing what he's called you to do and receiving the blessings that flow out of obedience in our lives. This is why Jesus shares in Matthew 6, 33 with us. In the Sermon on the Mount it gave us a formula, guys. It says but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Why did Jesus tell us that? Why did he leave us a formula? Because he knows when we, as human beings, go to the Father and we seek him first, we're going to be in our relationship with him, who he's called us to be, and out of that place we're going to do what he relationship with him, who he's called us to be, and out of that place we're going to do what he's called us to do, because we have intimacy with him, we hear from him, we talk to him daily and therefore we'll have what we're supposed to have.

Speaker 1: 7:56

So, number one, the first point I want to hit on, is B. Who God created you to be is unique to you. There will never be another you in the world. I see Jason right now. He's got his camera on and maybe you guys have heard me share this before. It's something God's put on my heart for over a decade now. But I talk a lot about how there will never be another you in the world and how God created you perfect, just the way you are. And I see Jason right now. And, jason, your responsibility and your job is to go to God and understand who he created you to be Not Cody Cottle like me, or I see James Becker, madison or Arnold on here. Our job is to identify God. Who am I and why am I here? If you want a great practice to help with this, if you're struggling in your life knowing your identity and I'm going to share some great things in identity in just a moment but I want to give you, guys, a practice that shifted everything for me.

Speaker 1: 8:53

I got invited to go on this men's hike in North Carolina with 12 guys and I didn't know what to expect. It was a faith-based thing and we were going on an insane hike, like a 20-mile hike. It was like the hardest hike I've ever done. But before we did it, we had a leader who led us in an exercise and he helped me understand that, until I identified who God has called me to be, I will always feel confused in my life because I won't have clarity on who I am, and everyone teaches on the identity in Christ, which I'll touch on. But there's a point beyond identity in Christ of our own uniqueness as human beings and who God created us to be, and the practice he gave me challenged me and I want to give it to you.

Speaker 1: 9:38

He took our phones away. I hadn't had that done in a long time a grown man. He took our phones away from us, locked them up, gave us a small piece of paper, a pencil, and said you're not allowed to talk for the next hour. Go find a quiet place in the cabin or out in the woods. And I want you to go to God with two questions God, who am I? And God, why am I here? And we weren't allowed to talk and I prayed and I meditated and I stared at these two questions for probably what felt like 30, 40 minutes of the 60 minutes, just not like I don't know. And then God started to speak to me. And you know what, at the end of that hour I didn't have full clarity on who I was in God and what I was called to do. But what I did have was an understanding that I'm only going to receive it from him and I had to continue to press into my quiet time with God, asking God to reveal to me God, who is Cody Cottle? God, why am I here? Why did you put me on this earth?

Speaker 1: 10:38

2 Corinthians 5.17 says and now I'm going to go into identity in Christ, because if you don't get this right, you're not going to be able to get what I just talked about right. It says, therefore if anyone in Christ is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone and the new is here. This is a word for someone on this call. You're still holding onto your past. You're still holding onto your old identity in your BC days before you gave your life to Jesus. You're still holding onto the things that you did years ago that you have regret about. You're still holding onto decisions that you've made and they're shackling you from the new identity that you have in Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1: 11:21

I did this because I was a big time drug dealer when I was a kid, and what I mean by that is I built a mini weed empire at a young age. I moved over a million dollars in cannabis every single year. By the time I was 19 years old, in my mind I built a little empire and see, my identity was in the wrong things and and God shifted my entire life. I was actually coming out of that in those last few years because I was being discipled at a church but still participating in those activities, and I ended up shifting my entire life radically through an encounter with Jesus and walking with him. But I made a mistake. For about five years after that maybe four For four years after I gave my life not just like get saved, but walked with Jesus and made him Lord of my life, I still held on to my old identity. I still talked about the things I did in the past and different things, and I had this crazy encounter with God at 24 years old on March 23, at three 33 in the morning. I'll never forget.

Speaker 1: 12:23

I have a sticky note and I wrote it down, because I had a dream and God visited me in the dream and he showed me and to paint a picture for you of what I was seeing in my dream, I was on this hill and it had like tall, flowing grass and there was a giant willow tree at the top of the hill and I was walking up through the grass and God was speaking to me. I couldn't see a physical form of God, he was just talking with me and he said Cody, you will never become the man that I created you to be until you let go of the old identity that you keep holding onto. Let go and release. That man's no longer alive. You killed him. I've brought you back to life through my son, jesus, and you are a new man, born again, and you have permission to be that man. I woke up crying, covered in sweat, and I just knew that I didn't need to hold on to anything from my past anymore, that God was creating a new creation in me.

Speaker 1: 13:26

And, guys, someone on this call needs to hear that You're still holding on to the old identity, but you're a new creation in Jesus Christ. Our identity is in Christ. When we believe in him, we become new creations, shedding our old ways and stepping into God's design for our lives. Some of you are still holding onto the financial blueprint you had in your old identity. Some of you are still holding onto the habits you had in your old identity and expecting different outcomes in your life. You're expecting to have more financial wealth. You're expecting to live a more incredible life. You're expecting to have a more fruitful marriage, a better, stronger, bigger business. But you're still operating from an identity of who you were before, not in the identity that you're called to live in now. I hope you guys are catching this.

Speaker 1: 14:22

Ephesians 1, 4 through 5 says Now. I hope you guys are catching this. Ephesians 1, 4 through 5 says For he chose us in him, before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in sight. Guys, before God ever created us, he knew what he was doing. He chose you, he chose me. He chose us to be blameless in sight and love. He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ. Guys, God predestined you before he ever created you. He knew you would be alive right now. He knew you'd be on this call right now. He knew exactly who you were going to be and he's always predestined you to have adoption to sonship with him through his son, who he sacrificed for us. God has chosen us as his own, chosen us as his own.

Speaker 1: 15:23

You know, I think I struggled with this because my earthly father was incarcerated for 29 years and I never felt real love like a father's embrace and love in the way that I should have as a young boy. So when I came to know God is like a father, the image and the conception I had of what a father is wasn't who my heavenly father really is, because my earthly father had made some mistakes and those mistakes had hurt me, they had traumatized me, they had distorted the image of the way that I see a father-like figure in my life. But I read a book called Experiencing the Father's Embrace by an author named Jack Frost and I went through a little Bible study with some great godly men and they showed me that God is a loving father who has always loved me, and guys that shifted so much for me For the first time in my life. I remember breaking down with these guys in a Bible study, weeping and tears, because the first time in my life I realized that God is a father who's always loved me and that I've actually always had a dad, that I never was fatherless, that I never was an orphan, because God was always with me, even when my earthly father wasn't able to be. Recognizing this truth in our life helps us be confident in who God made us to be. You know, when I went through that process I actually became more confident in myself as a man, in myself as a business owner, in these different areas of my life, because I knew I had a dad who's always got my back.

Speaker 1: 17:03

Identity matters who you are in Christ is chosen, loved and redeemed. You know. I just want to say that if we don't get be right, we can't get do right. There's an order for this to flow. If we don't understand our identity in Christ and as a son of God and operate out of that place, you will always be searching for something in your life and wondering why you can't find it. Because it only flows out of identity.

Speaker 1: 17:35

Identity creates belief systems, belief systems create thought patterns, thought patterns create our habits, habits create our actions and actions create our results. So if we reverse, engineer this backwards and you want better results in your life, then you got to change your habits, and the only way you change your habits is if you change your thought life. The only way you change your thought life is if you change your belief systems. The only way you change your belief systems is if you understand your identity life, and the only way you change your thought life is if you change your belief systems. The only way you change your belief systems is if you understand your identity and change that. And there's only one place we get true identity. If we find it on this earth, it's always going to be the wrong thing, something's always going to be off, something's always going to be missing. You can go make a million dollars this year, guys. You can go make 10 million, you can go make a hundred million, but if the identity isn't right in the flow of doing that, you're still going to be depressed, you're still going to be anxious, you're still going to be stressed. Something's still going to be missing.

Speaker 1: 18:25

God's design is trust in creating that. He created us with purpose and intention. He made you for a reason and there's nothing wrong with you If you're struggling financially right now. There's nothing wrong with you. God created you and he doesn't make mistakes. We have to reject lies, counter any negative self-image or self-talk from Satan about who we are. Satan is a trickster and he's a deceiver. When things don't go well in your life, he'll come into your life. He'll whisper in your ear you're not enough or you'll never be enough, or you're a failure. You let this person down or all these things that are just lies. But we have to remember our authority and our identity and our sonship in Jesus Christ that we can actually speak to those spirits and say get out of my life. Doubt, you're not welcome. Get out of my life. Fear, you're not welcome. Get out of my life anxiety, stress, overwhelm, poverty. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus and if there's anyone on this call that is struggling with any of those things that I mentioned. I stand in agreement and I rebuke that in your life in the name of Jesus, and I call for a spirit of a sound mind, of courage, of boldness, of courageousness, of sonship, of being loved by your father and knowing who you are through your father and through his son, who he sent for you, because that's how much he loves you.

Speaker 1: 19:46

Point number two is do Now that we got identity. Now we need to do what God has called us to do. Y'all are my favorite people in the world. You want to know why? Because you're Christian entrepreneurs and I love business owners. Because we are doers. We are not just people that sit around and pray and hope. We are people that go, take massive action in our life and do something with the gifts that God has given us. We're stewards, we're faithful, we're multipliers, we're increasers of who God created us to be. Because, out of who he created us to be, we're going to do what he's called us to do. That's why you have a business. It's an assignment on your life. So, after understanding our identity, we live it out by doing what God has called us to do. Remember God? Who am I God? Why am I here? Why am I here?

Speaker 1: 20:34

Assignment mandate calling on your life. We have to work with excellence and diligence in our God-given purpose. You cannot do what God has called you to do and have what God has called you to have if you are not excellent and diligent with what the assignment he has on your life is. It's hard work for a reason. God designed it that way. The land has to be worked. If the land is not worked, there will not be a harvest. We have to be diligent with our work.

Speaker 1: 21:14

Colossians 3, 23 through 24 says Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. As for working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you have received an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. You know I had a crazy moment on this scripture the other day. I've said the scripture a lot. I do it in the discovery call. I love this verse, but God showed me like we get salvation, we get saved and we have an inheritance of eternity in heaven. And now we have a time period between salvation and going to heaven, where we've been entrusted with a life and in that life we're working for our father. We're actually pleasing him.

Speaker 1: 22:03

Work is worship. The way we work our business is a way that we worship God. Guys, as you go into your business today and you get frustrated, I want to remind you in the middle of that work, you're actually worshiping your father, saying God, I'm so grateful you gave me the life you've given me to live. God, I'm so grateful I have an inheritance in heaven. God, I'm so grateful I have gifts you entrusted me with and I have a business that you've shown me how to build. So today, god, I'm going to give you my best. Today, god, I'm going to be excellent. Today, god, I'm going to be diligent with the thing that you've put in my hands, because I want to worship you and honor you. Honor is something that we hold in high regard. With what you've given me, know that you let me skip my line.

Speaker 1: 22:49

When we work with excellence in a servant's heart, we dedicate all of our efforts to God, rather than seeking human approval. Guys, we're playing for an audience of one. The only person you have to please today is God. It does not matter what other people are doing. It doesn't matter what that person you follow on Instagram has is doing or whatever. None of that matters. It doesn't matter how much money is in your bank account. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is you're honoring God with what he's given you. That's it, proverbs 21.5,. I said this earlier.

Speaker 1: 23:31

But the plans of the diligence lead to profit as sure as haste leads to poverty. And I just want to hit it one more time, because if you're trying to shortcut your way to success, you have to understand that's not how God designed it. There's a process that something has to go through in order for it to be fruitful. You know, if we want a harvest, if we look at crops, there's a seed that has to be buried underground and covered. That seed has to be watered, there has to be sunshine, it has to sprout and grow roots, it has to grow, it has to survive that period of growth, it has to have rain and sunshine and nutrients to produce a harvest, fruit, and then it has to be picked and stored and all the things the right way. There's a process that we have to go through in our businesses in order to yield a harvest.

Speaker 1: 24:27

I think I was the guy that tried to figure all the shortcuts out. And I'm not saying we shouldn't have wisdom, we shouldn't have tactics, we shouldn't mastermind, we shouldn't get in communities like this. That's necessary. But the moment I stopped trying to get rich quick, the moment I stopped trying to buy everything, every guru was saying that they weren't actually doing to get rich. And I just started saying, god, how do I take what you've given me it's pretty small right now and just be faithful with it? Show me the process you'd have me go through, god, to steward what you've given me. God blesses hard work and diligence. Shortcuts often lead to failure, while steady, faithful effort yields success.

Speaker 1: 25:13

Faithful stewardship is I wrote a few points on this one because this point is so important. Faithful stewardship looks like I wrote a few points on this one because this point is so important. Faithful stewardship looks like using the talents and gifts that God gave each of you to honor him. Now I have a gift that I've recognized, that God has given me, of communication, and I wrestled with this gift because early on in my career I did sales. Like my friend Nicholas shared earlier. I can go get a sales job any day of the week and sell for a company that has an expensive product and make a lot of money because I'm very good at communication and I've mastered my gift and I've sharpened it. But I had a wrestling in my spirit with the gift God gave me and how I was using it. I felt like something was off in my life. I felt like I wasn't using the thing that God had entrusted me with in the way that he'd have me use it. And that's when I made the shift into becoming the man that you guys see today, because I knew in my identity and I understood the gifts that God gave me. So I began to go to God and say show me how you would have me use these gifts. And one of the ways I'm using it is right now. I'm using the gift God gave me of communication to steward with excellence and diligence this message to you guys this morning. I want you to think about the unique gifts that you have. How do you steward those gifts and give them away to the world and express them through your guys' companies and businesses and lives? Trust God and His timing.

Speaker 1: 26:54

This is the hardest point, because everyone likes to talk about sowing seed and everyone likes to talk about harvest, but no one likes to talk about what happens in between the two time periods when you sow a seed into the ground to the time that you harvest it. There's quite a long time period of that thing having to grow and develop to become harvestable. And I just want to remind some of you even some of you shared on this call it was so perfect, the God stories. You've been sowing seed and you're frustrated because you haven't seen the harvest yet in your life or your business or your finances or whatever it is you've been sowing into. And I just want to remind you that the farmer never doubts that the crop will grow. The farmer always knows that there's a recipe that God has given him to plant a seed in the ground, to water it, to take care of it, and that it will grow. Sure, there are conditions outside of the farmer's control diseases, insects, things like that, weather that can affect the crop and things like that can affect our business, right Economy. We want to do a recession. It's going to affect your business. It's outside of your control. But God reminded me, cody, your job's not to worry about that. Your job's to plant the seed and take care of the field, and that's it. I will provide the harvest.

Speaker 1: 28:19

Point number three now that we're being who God's called us to be, we're doing what God's called us to do. We are going to have what God wants us to bless us, what God wants to bless you with. I know we're a little over time, but let me finish on this point. God desires to bless us, but blessing often comes as a result of being faithful in who we are and how we honor him with our businesses, with our life. Obedience always precedes blessing. Guys, if you want more from God, seek him more. Spend time with him more. We didn't know this extra bottle of handsome come from. We had someone who was unmuted. When we prioritize God's kingdom and righteousness, he provides for all of our needs, including material and spiritual blessings. Guys, psalms 84 11 says for the Lord, god is a sun and shield. The Lord bestows favor and honor. Guys, god's never going to withhold your blessing. God's never going to withhold provision for heaven on your life. If you're walking with him, you're spending time with him, you're seeking him diligently, you're asking him God, who am I, god, why am I here? And you're doing the things God has called you to do. Never in my experience as a Christian have I ever truly seen God withhold true blessing from my life when my walk is blameless. He's never like I'm not going to give you this just because he always.

Speaker 1: 30:09

There might be a pathway to that thing that I couldn't see with my human eyes or understand or discern. That took a little longer to get to the destination than I, quite frankly, would have liked. I would have liked it a lot sooner. I would have liked to be wealthy sooner in life, but God had a path he had to take me on to get to that place that he knew I needed to go on. God's blessing follows obedience. Blessings are a byproduct of living in alignment with God and his will for your life. Seek him first. Prioritize God's kingdom over your worldly pursuits.

Speaker 1: 30:47

This was a hard one for me. I'm almost done. I think goals are good. We're going to do a goal-setting workshop in a few weeks.

Speaker 1: 30:57

Obviously I believe in them, but I think sometimes we will over-prioritize our worldly pursuits over our intimacy and our relationship to hear from God. The order can't get flipped. We have to prioritize seeking Him first and His will for our life. Secondary has to be the desires of our hearts and our pursuits and our goals and our targets and our KPIs for our businesses and our life. In fact, so much so when I went through a season of actually doing this, not just saying it.

Speaker 1: 31:33

God uprooted a lot of things in my life. So just so you all know, if you're going to live in obedience, be prepared for God to shake your life up. I closed a business down. I gave up a ton of money. I chose not to move forward with partnerships that looked really good on paper. I went through a season of doing less, where I felt like I was being lazy because I'm so used to working 100 plus hour weeks because God wanted more time with me. But out of that came the identity of the man you see today came the Christian Entrepreneur Club, came the nonprofit Seven Peaks, came the things that my wife and I are doing today, and I've never felt more fulfilled than I feel right now in my life.

Speaker 1: 32:15

But I actually had to prioritize my relationship with God over my worldly pursuits and as an entrepreneur who's been wired by the secular world, that was really hard for me to do because I was so used to outworking everyone. And now I don't believe in that. I actually don't believe you need to work every weekend of your life. I don't think you guys need to go work $100 weeks to be successful. I think it's all a lie. I think it's a tactic from the enemy. I think he knows if he can't get you to sin, he'll keep you so busy. You won't have a relationship with God. I think less is more. I think more time with God is the best strategy you could ever have in your business.

Speaker 1: 32:51

I prioritize spending more time with God than I do reading personal development books. I spend more time prioritizing my time with God than I do masterminding. I spend more time in my intimacy with the Lord than I do doing all these worldly things, because I know that's the number one source that's going to show me exactly where I need to go and what I need to do, and it hasn't let me down yet and I'm going to keep doing it and I encourage you to do it. So receive. The last thing is we do receive blessing from God. God will bless you financially. God will give you things. God will allow you to have your worldly pursuits. Never lose sight of where they come from. Always have gratitude, always have thanks in God's blessing when pride and ego come out because they do I battle it too, y'all. I did this. I built this company. I made these millions of dollars? No, I didn't. God allowed me to have an assignment and I was faithful with the assignment and God blessed me.

Speaker 1: 33:52

On the other side of my obedience, the moment my pride comes in and Cody did this and Cody did that, and I'm talented and I'm gifted is the moment we step back out of alignment with our identity in Christ. And I don't know about y'all, but I've had been had to be slapped on the head, the wrist, wherever you want to say, slapped all over by God too many times in that place that now I ain't taking credit for any of it. God will use me. Yes, I'm diligent, I'm excellent, but my identity is not in those outcomes. My identity is just being a son and being faithful as a son and stewarding what God's put in my hands.

Speaker 1: 34:30

If God God might take it away tomorrow, he'll have a reason for it. God might double what we have tomorrow. He'll have a reason for it. I trust him in that. So be thankful for what God has already provided in your life. Be thankful for what he's already given you and, at the same time, trust him for more. At the same time, believe God can do more in your life. Be thankful for what he's already given you and, at the same time, trust him for more. At the same time, believe God can do more in your life. At the same time, expect more. There is nothing wrong with expecting great things from God. The only thing is the expectation has to know it's in his time, not your time. So that's my message for you guys today. I hope it hit, I hope it landed and I hope some of you guys got some stuff from it.