"Overcoming a Negative Self-Image" - Rev. Dr. Kevin W. Cosby

your change is helping us to feed them alright so if you're a college student you're looking for a free meal come on over alright ain't that wonderful amen so my some of the room as we prepare to worship God in giving amen Lord we can do we can do the dreaming and envisioning but you bring the blessing so lord give us power and strength to do your will in our community and throughout our world thank you for the selflessness and the generosity of your people may you pour into them as they become channels of blessings to other people in Jesus name Amen it is our tradition that we walk around and we bring our gifts to God our tithes and our offerings let's pop down [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] let's talk about some crazy faith take your message out notes out with me we're in this series on crazy faith we're looking at the 11th chapter of Hebrews which is the faith hall-of-fame chapter of the Bible and guess how you enter into this chapter there's only one criteria one standard by which each person is mentioned and that is faith faith faith faith faith faith crazy faith crazy faith is faith in which you are attempting something that's so crazy so ridiculous that people say no that's crazy alright now the first person that we read about in the 11th chapter of Hebrews who had crazy faith and every person and you read the eleventh chapter who is mentioned that it always says by faith they did this by faith they did this by faith by faith and isn't just not ordinary fact that they're exercising but it's crazy faith and the first person we read about who had crazy faith is in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 4 where it says it was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God then Cain did Abel's offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man and God showed his approval he approved of him of his gifts although Abel is long dead he still speaks to us by his example of faith in other words Abel is trying to teach us that people who had his challenges can overcome their challenge if they exercise faith and what was Abel's challenge that he needed faith to overcome it is a challenge that many of us hands it is malnourished nourishment in our confidence the malnourished 'men of confidence our issues with our self-image and this is Abel's challenge but guess how he overcomes this debilitating sense of unworthiness he overcomes it by faith now we read about Abel in the first book of the Bible the book of Genesis and the book of Genesis is a good book because it's a book about beginnings than the word Genesis means beginning and since it's the book of beginnings you have a lot of 1st in the book of Genesis for example in chapter 1 you have the first man who is created and his name is Adam Adam and then in Genesis chapter 2 you have the first marriage God creates Eve for Adam out of Adam side not from Adams head to suggest that she's superior are from his foot to suggest that she is inferior or not from his hand to suggest that she's supposed to be abused or used as a tool from his side because she's supposed to be by her side and so he we read in chapter 2 the first marriage Adam and Eve then in chapter 3 we read about the first mistake the first mistake God put Adam in Eden Adam and Eve in a paradise called eaten and God said now you can eat of every tree in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil and guess what they did they were not content with what God had given them they became so obsessed with what they could not have that they minimize what they did have and they tried to get it all and when they tried to get it all they ended up losing it home it was a mistake they were tempted remember by Satan in the form of a serpent comes in the form of a serpent so when the 3rd chapter you had the first mistake 2nd chapter first merits first chapter first man but in the fourth chapter where we read about Abel there's a whole lot of first for example there's the first mother and we read about Eve giving birth to Cain in the first in the fourth chapters and we also know that Cain will become the first murderer he will murder his brother Abel and it's not homicide this is not homicide this is what you call fratricide fratricide is when you kill somebody in your family first mother first murder it seems like come on that after the fall that they could have escalated when it comes to seeing I mean you didn't have to go to the top of the list Cemal if I could have see it you know he cussed or something like that but they went to the very top murderer mother murderer and we also read about the first martyr and the martyr is Abel Abel he's a martyr Jesus even calls him a martyr in Matthew chapter 23 and verse 35 where Jesus calls him innocent so we have the first mother first murder first modern and then we have the first misrepresentation the first misrepresentation because we are told look at Genesis chapter 4 verse 9 it says after Cain had killed Abel he says afterwards the Lord asked Cain where is your brother where is Abel and he said what I don't know that was a very first lie he knew where he was because he's responsible for his death right hey man we read about Abel in Genesis chapter 4 so let's look at it let's just kind of walk around the story a little bit and learn some lessons first of all verse 1 tells us that now 8 Adam had sexual relations with his wife Eve and she became pregnant when she gave birth to Cain she said you got a you got a feel her you got to feel the text she's she's exuberant she's excited she says with the Lord's help I have produced a man I have produced a man listen the name Cain means produced or it could mean the man he's the man and when his mother looked at Cain I mean when he took his first steps her heart Pat it with Joey because he's the man when he uttered his first syllables her her eyes welled up with tears because he's he's the man that's what she thought about Cain and when she called him the man what do you think she's making reference to she thinks he's the man that's going to do something that God promised in Genesis chapter 3 after you remember chapter 3 you have the big mistake and there's a fall the big mistake produces the fall god there's consequences to the mistake to sin here's the consequences for Adam Adam you got a the grounds not going to cooperate with you when you kill it and plant vegetables you're gonna have to work hard from the sweat of your brow then sent to the woman Eve Eve when you bear children you would bear them in pain and then he said to the serpent he said no serpent he said you will you will roll on your belly for always throughout ages you will roll on your belly which implies then that Satan or the serpent was upright I mean it's hard to deal with snakes on the ground what about I think I've seen a holdout upright snakes in my life you will roll on your belly and then he says this and Satan I will cause hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring he will and then he says to Eve he will strike your head my sister the serpent he will strike your head and you will strike his heel you will strike Eve's offspring is going to strike your head now what happens when you stomp the head of the snake you kill it so the promise to Eve is this Eve one of your descendants is going to come into the world and all the evil that has created enmity and estrangement between God and human beings he will strike Satan's head and destroy evil and when she heard that promise and when Cain was born guess what she thought he's the man he's the one that is going to save us from evil but guess what how do you know that she was wrong because she he could not save us from evil why because Kame Kame from Adam and Eve and the one who's going to save us from evil can't have a human father because that would mean he's evil because he inherited sin so the person who would be Eve's offspring to destroy evil would be Jesus Christ who destroy evil when he died on the cross but guess what she thought the cain was the man and she treated him like he was the man but then when abel was born let's see what happens to him verse 2 is he the man what is the Saints well it says later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel come on man give me a little bit more than that I mean Cain he's born oh he's the man Abel's born well she just gave birth to a boy in fact the word Abel means breath Cain means he's the man Abel means breath our vapor something of no substance are of no importance so you have here one son the firstborn son who the parents have high hopes and high expectations you have one son named Abel whom well the parents don't see much in him and this is not an unimportant issue because what sets the trajectory of a child's life is how parents feel about the child a child develops their self-image on the basis of what a parent is saying to the child parent shape self-image parents are like their child's mirror and when you when you look in the mirror you get to see yourself and kids see themselves based on what their parents aren't telling them if you've got a mom and dad seeing can you demand then probably kane has a good chance of becoming the man but if you have like parent who's saying that able your just breath you're nothing and woman likely able will probably just be a vapor in a breath and he will be nothing in other words what kids need from parents from the church from the schools from the community is a sense than I am legitimate that I have legitimacy legitimacy for a child means three things get this down it's very important it means and this is what shapes self-image and that is something that has to be done early confidence must be infused early you always act in harmony with your confidence which is swag amen and this is what must be infused first of all acceptance Kane received it I don't know how much Abel got acceptance and acceptance means this when you create an environment in which you accepted the child hears and starts saying you know what I'm accept it so I must be acceptable and that's the goal you're accepted so therefore I must be acceptable Kane must have felt that way I don't know about Abel the second a word is approval approval approval and if acceptance means I'm acceptable approval means I am valuable I'm valuable and whenever you can get a kid to say I'm acceptable I'm valuable and that helps shape self-image the absence of it desecrate self-image then the third word is adequate adequate an adequate simply means I'm capable I'm capable I could do anything else any other person can do and it is parents and those who partner with parents like you heard Anisha you heard Frenchie and schoolteachers others who partner with parents who create at an early age which is the foundation of success a child self-image how they see themselves why because the me I see is the me I'll be I need to see myself as acceptable I need to see myself as valuable I need to see myself as capable you know what one of the advantages of a cheesy use is that one thing that hbcus does help is it helps kids when it's truly being true to its mission to see themselves as acceptable to see themselves as valuable to see themselves as capable i asked i was asked on one occasion by a woman she said is not hbcus a return to segregation and i said to her well first of all i don't know if we've really left it but more importantly no it's not a return of celibacy breguet she has returned to celebration it's a it's a celebration of kids where you don't have to cold switch what's cold switch many kids who come from west louisville are from our culture when they move outside their culture they wonder am i going to be judged because I don't use certain words or if I don't talk a particular way so when they're used their natural their natural colloquial for example if they say y'all crazy some of you who are adults sometimes have their fear y'all crazy and then you say oh my god I should have said you you are crazy well you should be able to be in an environment what you can be truly who you are and no one will judge you based on whether or not you say y'all crazy are you are crazy that you're acceptable that you're invaluable that you are capable amen regardless amen of what you find stifling example you example not me at the University of Florida earlier this year at the University of Florida at the graduation there was some kids who got influenced by Frenchie and they went from T and G and went on to the rest of Florida but Frenchie was in them and they just do what they just do what they do and this is what happened when they were graduating when they were coming across the stage to get their diploma watch this [Applause] [Applause] okay we'll stop here so in other words when they were being themselves and the message here's the message that there's something illegitimate about you being who you are we ought to create a culture where people can feel comfortable being who they are when you graduate from Simmons as the president of school if you don't dance you don't get your diploma a man because especially because some of y'all graduate magna laude and some of y'all just graduate Thank You laude say a man in here hey ma'am and especially when you may be the first person in your family to graduate and you were not supposed to graduate amen and God's been good to you you can't just walk across the stage all sadiddy' and saying I made my promise so [Applause] let me close this thing Cain is the man Abel is nothing and some of you are able nothing not expected to be anything no good self-image but would you read again when it says in Genesis chapter 4 and look at verse 2 later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel when they grew up stop we know how it was when they were in elementary school we know how it was when they were in middle school we know how it was when they were in high school what kind of environment Cain is the man Abel is just what breath but notice it says when they grew up whose name is mentioned first is Abel Abel's name is mentioned first when they grew up Abel became a shepherd while Cain cultivated a man the ground which meant that something happened in spite of what his parents did not do for him in spite of the fact that he was called just breath and vapor in spite of the fact that he had to live in the shadows of his brother Cain when they grew up the first name to be mentioned it's not Cain but it's Abel in fact if you read the book of Genesis those of you who are Genesis students know that this sets the pattern for the rest of the book in the book you've got brothers and in each instance the last becomes first so first it's Cain and Abel but then when they grow up it's Abel and then it's Cain and then first there's Ishmael and Isaac but later on there's a reversal Isaac and Ishmael first esau he's the oldest than Jacob in the end Jacob who's second is becomes first and Esau who's first becomes second then it's it's Jacob's teen sons then it comes Joseph but at the end it's Joseph who's on top and it's the pretend brothers who are on bottom which and I think this is trying to say to us that regardless of where you are right now regardless you may not measure up to someone else's expectation you might be a but somehow Abel in spite of what his parents didn't do still rolls up to become the very first person to be listed in the Hall of Fame chapter what is it that got him there what is it that allowed able to rise above what is parents thought about it faith faith the regardless of where I am and God how broke I am regardless what neighborhood I live in and regardless of what he'll think about me or say about me my faith in God if I trust God the God is able to lift me and to elevate me to pass me up regardless of what they say about my SATs and AC T's and my potential in my capacity by faith abel became notice what it says Abel offered gave an evidence that he was a righteous man God showed his approval and here's the here's the shout the shout is that regardless of who may disapprove of you if God shows approval there is nothing through faith that can block you from getting where God wants you to be if you have faith now somebody needs to hear this because there's a whole lot of Cain's who's gonna try to make you think you can't be what God told you to me when I became the president of Simmons believe it or not there was a whole lot of leaders some of them all the presidents who said you can't do this this is impossible you don't have any money you don't have any history you don't have an Alumni Society you know not organized I mean some things they said if folk guess what sometimes can see in you what you don't see in you and what and they say what they say sometimes because they don't want you to see what's in you amen that's why some of y'all need to cancel the subscription to other people's opinion whatever they say and think about you and you've been reading it cancel the subscription amen amen oh you're not gonna mount anything you're not gonna be anything and I said okay by faith in my favor every time we needed some money some money came in by faith by faith when we needed new support facility space it just came by faith by faith by faith by faith just keep on trusting I told you man call me in the room and said preacher can't you shout and I said why he said because here's a million dollars I just wanna know if you can shout I said by faith hey man I just trusted God by faith by faith by faith by faith by faith over on 18th of nuuma kneel by faith and then on November 3rd Universal Louisville just put out its basketball schedule just came and I was in a I ain't know I knew what's coming out but and I knew what was going to happen but they it was on the news for the very first time last week and on Friday I think it was on whas news they started announcing at U of L has this basketball season out and the first game is against Bellamy in the second game on diest on November 3rd it's against Simmons College all number on the 3rd I sat down I said I look here here we are able and we've gone from nothing amen and we get ready to play you avail come on talk to me somebody at the Yum center because when you got faith God will bring some stupid ridiculous and crazy things how to lose your head your life when you operate by faith and if you trust God amen by faith God will do it quit trying to be somebody you not if you are able be glad to be able be thankful for Abel amen don't ever be intimidated by somebody else don't try to look like anybody else if you got faith in God he is all you need mr. Robbins tried to tell y'all that but you wouldn't listen mr. Robbins tried to tell you but you in here because mr. Robbins Center look some people don't like three flavors so mr. Robbins said some people just don't like chocolate vanilla and strawberry and guess what because there's different flavors so he said guess what I'm gonna create 31 different flavors because everybody shouldn't be stuck in just one flavor and the problem with many of us is that we trying to be somebody else's flavor talk to me somebody a man you gotta be a flavor hey man quit chasing after folks trying to get them to love you quit chasing after me I won't he love me he ain't your flavor but God's got somebody that likes rocky road God's got somebody talk to me somebody in here that likes butter pecan God's got somebody in here that likes cookie that crazy God's got somebody in here that like some dog big black big lips just be who you are [Applause] hallelujah and that's when you operate by faith no don't think is easy that's it don't fake is easy there are times that you don't feel like it do I have a witness in there times when you look at what you got a face you don't feel like coming to church you don't feel like praising God you don't feel like having faith but let me tell you what faith does faith doesn't either how when you broke praise him anyhow when you're sick praise him anyhow when nobody's in your corner praise Him anyhow somebody's in this church this morning y'all ain't fooling me you just you wait here because you're really feeling it you just woke up and said I gotta get here - hi do I have a witness in here and guess what will happen if you trust God anyhow if you shout anyhow if you praise him anyhow if you if you just fake him here the house broke shout get it house sick shout anyhow don't know what the money is coming from trust him anyhow and guess what will happen if you trust him serve him bless him anyhow he will make a way summer [Applause] because you need my brothers and sisters crazy face and Abel had crazy face and crazy face got him approved by God and when God approves you it does not matter who disapproves you and if others if God don't approve you it doesn't matter who does approve you a man you operate by crazy faith it's not over till it's over start dreaming some big dreams start aspiring in a big way and trust God and do your part and see if God won't do some ridiculous things because crazy faith produces crazy ridiculous blessings amen would you help me preach look at your neighbor and say neighbor council your subscription to what you've been listening to and what other folk been saying about you you've been reading that jump too long jump somebody say counsel the subscription let's sell all over this moon

Channel: St. Stephen Church

Views: 1,046

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: VHdcnbYha_w

Length: 38min 0sec (2280 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 27 2018