 So the first thing that God says is don't be proud. We all know rich people who are proud. And before we judge the rich people who are proud, I want to disclose something to you of why pride comes when money comes. It's not the money that brings pride. It's the system by which person measures their self-worth, which is connected to their wealth that brings pride. If your self-worth is connected to your wealth, then when your wealth grows, so will be your self-worth. And when your self-worth grows with your wealth, your self-worth becomes inflated. The definition of arrogance is inflated self-worth. Arrogance is a person who thinks more of themselves than they should. How do they think more of themselves how they should? Because they linked their worth to their wealth and their wealth is increasing, so is their importance. And so I will give you an example. If I can use Adrian and Johanen please. And so we're going to have two men who have two different self-esteem. And so one man, his self-esteem comes from Jesus. Come on, show the rock, show the rock. This is like Jesus because the rock, I want you to notice this, it doesn't grow bigger with the season. The rock doesn't go smaller during winter and it doesn't grow bigger. It doesn't inflate. It doesn't double in size. It stays the same every season and every time. And it's pretty strong, pretty solid, it's a weapon, it's stable, it's consistent and it has substance. The Bible says a wise man build his house on the rock. Doesn't change. Now we have a person whose self-esteem is based on his income and his appearance. When he's broke, there's not much. Just a little bit. They feel horrible about themselves. They feel worthless. They feel like, oh, I'm not good enough. Why? Because other people have more. Because their worth comes from their wealth. And when there is not a lot of wealth, not a lot of worth. But then Adrian gets a job. He goes to college. He gets a bachelor's degree, master's degree. He got a business going on the side. Praise be to God. That's good. And so you can tie it up now. So we can come here now and Adrian feels arrogant compared to Johanen. Why? Because he's way bigger than Johanen. I mean, look at Adrian. You're going good. So you've got to always maintain that thing that you get with inflation. You've got to guard it and protect it. Get the lawyers and live with guns and all this stuff. And your hands are sweaty and stuff. Okay, you can hold it. You can just hold it like this. Yeah. And so I want you to see this. I want you to see this. That's fine. Compare these two. Of course he's bigger. He's better. But his size is inflated. And his size has no substance inside. If your worth comes from the make of the car you drive and how many digits are in your account number. If it comes from the zip code of the neighborhood that you currently reside and which schools you can afford to send your kids to. If your worth comes from you are richer than those and those, your self-esteem is a balloon. It's only good when you're strong and healthy. Economy is good and everything falls in your favor. Good luck. Because we live in a world that is broken. And we live in America that is ran by broken people. And we have Wall Street that has some messed up people there. We have stuff. We live in a broken system and the broken world. The Bible says uncertain riches. Uncertain. It's fine until this thing comes in. A small little accident in life. The Bible says that the foolish and the wise men they build their houses and then the rain and the storm came. And the rain came attacking. Guess what happens? The needle will break. The rock will not. See when you have your identity and your worth in who you are. When you have who you are and who you are in Jesus, when you have the rock as your foundation. Whether you're broke or rich, you're the same. Your importance doesn't become bigger because you have a nicer car. You have more followers on Instagram and because you have more money. You still carry yourself with same dignity that you carried when you took a public transportation. I know who I am. I am righteous. I am forgiven. My heaven is at home and I'm a child of God. I am loved whether I'm skinny or I'm fat. I am loved whether I'm rich or I am poor. I am loved whether I have a lot of clothes or I shop at discount stores. It doesn't matter. I know who I am. And then you get stuff. I'm still the same guy. I still love God. I still fast. I still pray. And the trouble comes. It only makes me stronger. But then we have a person in here who is based under appearance. It's based under stuff. And so, guess what they fear? Now, everybody fears these. Do you think rocks like the needles? You see what happens with these needles? You keep pinching them and then you lose them. Do you think rocks like these things? They don't like it. Nobody likes it. But the rock doesn't fear them for their identity is never measured by their wealth or their appearance. Balloons are terrified of these little pieces. Why? Because it takes one touch. And there goes your wealth. And there goes your self-esteem. And there goes your who you are. Because it's not based on who you are. It's based on your weight scale or your wealth scale or some other scale that's not Jesus. You may sit here today and you say, Vlad, I don't feel rich and therefore I don't struggle with pride. But if you're self-esteem, if you feel small, if you feel worthless, if you feel inferior, if you feel like you're nobody. Let me ask you a question. Why do you feel that? If your answer is, well, I'm not Vlad. I'm not Malachi. I'm not Ilya. I'm not like on the music team. I don't have a nice car. I'm not married. I don't have this. That tells me you have linked your worth to something the enemy can have access to. You may not struggle with arrogance, but you are struggling right now with other sins. And when God blesses you, you will no longer struggle with depression. You'll struggle with pride. And God says that I want to bless you, but I want you to change who you are. Draw your identity, connect who you are to me, and therefore when your wealth inflates, your self-importance will not. When you get thinner, better, and sips and briceps and triceps and every other sips and you look incredible, you're still the same importance as you were when you were a baby. Come on, somebody! God does not love you more or less when you're rich or poor. And you should never become more important in your eyes when you make more money. Because what that makes you is arrogant. Because your worth is now more. Now, the world will always seize you as more important. I'm not saying that. That's the world. Make sure you don't think of you as more important. God told Saul, when you were small in your eyes, that's when I picked you. But then you got inflated, you got more money, you have more titles, and you have switched from putting your worth into me, which I loved you, and you were my child, you were my son, when you were nobody. You were still somebody to me, and you quickly switched to something that was bigger now. Because see, this is smaller than the rocks. See, some of you, the only reason you're holding on right now and God defines who you are, let's be honest, you ain't got nothing. So what God gives you is more. But there is coming a day where your balloon is going to start getting bloated. Where money is going to come, where context will come, where followers will come, where you will become known. Make sure when your balloon, your business, your money and your life gets bigger, make sure you don't switch who you are to that as it can go up and go down. Somebody say amen. Somebody say my net worth does not determine my self-worth. Let's say it again, say my net worth does not determine my self-worth. When your money inflates, make sure your ego doesn't. Stay where you are. When the ministry grows, make sure my prayer life and commitment to God. Humility remains the same. Make sure I don't become special. I will be special to a lot of people. Make sure I'm not special to me. Make sure that I take myself the same way I took myself when I had absolutely nothing. Pride and arrogance comes when we switch our identity from Jesus Christ into our things that have grown us, outgrown us. Now when I was younger, I used to think that your self-esteem is something that God thinks of you so highly that you will never, ever in your life be able to match to that thinking. And I realized the Bible says for us to think within the measure of God's grace, meaning God doesn't think you're all this and that. You're not. The Bible says two definitions for who you are. You're nothing without me. You can do everything through me. If you think that God thinks in here that you're so worthy and awesome, He would never have us worship Him. He'll have us worship you. Your self-esteem has limits. Some of you think that you're like limitless. God thinks of you so high and you're just trying to think of you so high as God thinks. God doesn't think of you so high. He just thinks of you good. He loves you. He thinks good of you. But there is a ceiling to your self-esteem. But when the wealth goes through the ceiling and it goes up, we tend to go with our self-esteem, with our wealth. And God says that's when the pride comes in. Because arrogance is inflated self-importance. Rich people do not be inflated. Amen.