 This evening. I just want to shortly speak to you on the topic called the comparison trap Somebody say the comparison trap The comparison trap and the scripture is 2nd Corinthians 10 12 and it says this from NIV We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who comment commend themselves When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves They are not wise Look at your neighbor say are you wise? Or should I look for another? We all fell into this this trap of comparing yourself To somebody else. Yeah, anybody's parents ever compared you to your older sibling or your cousin Or somebody every day Yeah, my dad so Every time you know in this russian culture We have this thing that you compare yourself to your your cousins or whatever And every time like remember when we were in our new house in our house and it'd be like six in the morning Dad would run into the to the room like it's nine o'clock You're sleeping your cousin already has three kids has a house And i'm like run out of the bed and it's like six a.m. Like dad. It's not nine It's like you get out of the house, you know, he's that's why I got married. I'm just kidding so that's not why I got married but You know, we always get scarred with this Your brother or your sister or your cousin or your uncle we always you know in life It's life like that when we get compared to somebody else You know in a negative way not the best way and that begins to Irritate us sometimes it makes you act out of character begin to you know Not to be happy with who you are what you do and everything that you have and you're like Oh, you know when I'll be them I'll be happy Everybody said anybody ever said that if I accomplish this one thing Then I'll be happy and that is the trap The satan wants to put us in is in this comparison trap There is a healthy challenge to become better But there is also A trap of satan to begin to compare ourselves With something that is delusional Something that is fake and something that is just it's a facade. It's just not real God many times begin to challenge us and begin to say, you know that I've made you whole I made you who you are. I I am in love with you. I'm jealous for you I've inscribed your name the palm of my hands But yet the circumstances around us begin to tell us oh unless you are this Can tone you are not pretty unless you have this GPA you have not accomplished success unless you Make this amount of money you are not good enough unless you have this type of body You're not worthy enough and they label us and we begin to compare Usselves with ourselves or the circumstances that are around us And the bible clearly says that look if you begin to do that, you're not wise And in uh and also another scripture in matthew 25 verse 14 and it talks about in this parable of a sewer It says for the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country Who called his own servant and delivered his goods to them and to one he gave five talents to another two and to another one To each according to his own ability That's something we have to understand Everybody has a destiny in their life You have dreams goals that god has placed inside of your hearts that are different from your neighbor Just because your neighbor drives a priest doesn't mean that you're driving on on a transit Your destiny is the same as the guy with the priest or the guy with the Mercedes the guy with the bmw It's just because somebody became a phd at 18 Doctors degree and whatever degree that they have doesn't mean your failure if you barely graduate high school You cannot just begin to see somebody else who made it and everybody classified them Oh joe made it hosay got a lawnmower business and you you know, he can't even wash my own car You know and you begin to be compared by your parents by your friends Whoever it might be and you label yourself as a failure because of this comparison trap that begins to take in our lives I'll show you some scriptures some stories from the bible where People begin to compare themselves To themselves to their neighbors and tragic things begin to take place Look at the story of kane and abel They begin to able begin to compare himself to kane and and begin to see you know Why am I not like this? Why am I life is not working out like this and that led him to murdering his own brother? If you see the story of sol and david sol begins to lose his life over a song Somebody's song sang a song that said david killed more people than sol and that drive him crazy To pursue a guy that was protecting him with his own life This comparison trap is very deadly It could make you do things that you can that is just unspeakable of and that's something that I want to talk about tonight is what comparison does to us One of the things is comparison takes away our contentment Comparison takes away our our satisfaction our contentment When you begin to compare yourself by yourself to people around you you will never Be satisfied because that comparison trap will take your peace and your joy that you have Only god our relationship with god gives that peace, but when we begin to compare ourselves Oh, he has made it if I don't become like him, you know, I'll never be happy Oh, if if I don't accomplish, you know, summer body summer body Hey, you know everybody's like hitting the gym so hard if I don't get that summer body You know, I'm not going to be happy with my soul. Like she's been relaxing some donuts life is good You know I learned it. I got I figured it out. I'm happy, you know Look at my closet today. I'm like geez. What was I doing a year ago? Why is things so tight anyways? We will never We will we will never be satisfied If you begin to compare yourself to others God has made you in a unique way You have to understand and you have to know this god has made you in the image of himself not man He didn't make you like john Or like barbie Is this but people named themselves barbie these days, right? You know, he didn't name you like maria like one, but you know, like Igor or valentina or I mean, I'm just kidding terrible name, uh, I'm just kidding You know, he didn't make it like that. He gave you a unique destiny Each one of you got a space to dream god has placed in abilities In side of you that he said you are the one to accomplish it Not your neighbor Just because your neighbor became a doctor doesn't mean you will be a doctor Maybe you'll be a lawyer or maybe you'll be a doctor, but you'll be a doctor with a difference Not just like a regular person god has placed a dream Maybe you're gonna be a basketball soccer star a boxer would be you know a banker whatever god has placed in your heart He says I want you to be that with a difference I wired you differently. I made you differently your eyes your skin tone your color your height your weight I made you if you're not a cheap copy of some original you are a unique product Fearfully and wonderfully made somebody put your hands together for jesus True satisfaction comes not from the things we acquire, but the relationship we maintain True satisfaction. I'm gonna repeat this. This is this is this is good for me even it comes not from the things that we get Not the materials things that we get but the relationship we maintain with our lord and savior jesus christ You will never be truly satisfied unless you taste jesus There's always be you know some people like you know, oh if I can accomplish this You know they get to this point where they accomplish it and they're like well I need to accomplish it again because I'm not truly satisfied Why so many people in hollywood they they reach the top and they begin to commit suicide because Satisfaction doesn't come from the things that you acquire It's from the relationship that you maintain with jesus christ That is why internship this summer is really important We want to ground you in your relationship with god Before you pursue your career which things are important and will teach you and will teach you how to do it the right way But remember who builds himself his life on the rock when storms and wind will come against him they will stand The relationship that you maintain brings the true satisfaction in life Number two comparison takes away our focus Comparison takes away focus it takes off our focus of jesus christ and puts our focus on ourselves And whenever you're focused on yourself, man, you are doomed to failure You're doomed to fail because we are men we make mistakes How many times did you say to yourself? I'll never do it again And you begin to do that same thing that you've said a thousand times you'll not do it Why because we're human we fail That's what jesus is look on to me look into the cross because he's the author He's the finisher of faith. He has done it jesus christ is our focus But when you compare it to your neighbor You begin to see oh, I'm not worthy enough Oh, I can't do it the way he does it No, I can't sing like he sings it. You know when malachi came, you know, I shake my faith a lot Like malachi, please leave the place You know for me it was it was it was a reality check You know the one begins to sing and people in the crowds are like crying I'm like, why don't you cry when I sing? My ears hurts Bless you brother That's how pray for you during a prayer line, you know, no so But that to begin to they begin to reality check, you know What why do you base your identity on? Is it on the voice that you have? Is it on the hair that will soon fall out? Pray to god it doesn't thank god for wigs, you know You know is it on the you know some roles that you're gonna get and just once you get married married Man said amen. I love skin work on your body, please Um, but what do you base your identity on? Comparison takes away your focus It's the people that always that's what I notice in life the people who take care of themselves the most are actually the people who are In majority of them are the most insecure Who have the most perfect body that you think of or have the most perfect life that you are jealous of Those are most of the cases. There are the most people who are insecure They lose their house. You'll see they're in depression They lose their body. They're you know, they're they're walking around with the bottle because that's it everything everything they had they lost You know when job it was the richest man in in in his old area. He lost everything like he lost everything They can possibly think of yet He me loses relationship with god and he said, you know, god gives god takes away Blessed be his name By his wife that you know that that what that thought hey, we had all these things life is good Everything is wonderful when things were taken away from her. She was the one crying curse god God wants us to focus on him not not on us not on our neighbor not not on things that we can acquire God just look on to me because in me you you'll find worth you'll find identity You will know who you are in christ jesus. You will know that no circumstances can stop you You know that you'll be on top and not a bottom. Come on put your hands together for jesus When when our focus gets gets taken away from us We begin to fight out out of failure and fear instead of victory When our focus is stripped from us. We will fight out of failure and out of fear Jesus comes and he gives and says i've given you victory before you even got the victory But when you fight out of victory, then you can have victory When you fight out of fear, you're just you know, it's like the 12th The one the spies was sent to the promised land. It's a look, you know, god promised to us But we're scared and that's why they never entered that promised land But the people said look god has given us the city. I don't care who is there. We're gonna take it They fought out of victory When our focus is taken away from us you you anytime you get a pimple on your face You go into depression use makeup Come on. Actually got married. I figured out the thing, you know, you get a pimple. I'm like, babe cover me up Nobody knows, you know, but when I was 14, I get it, you know, I'm on stage. Thank you. Jesus. I'm like god Everybody's looking at the pimple. What's going on, you know And it's your identity is based on that And how you look and you know, you lose a fight you lose something that you stand for and that's it You're down. You're depressed. You know where to be found your your your feed on facebook begins to roll You know, everybody left me backstabbers blackmailers, you know, all these things you're like, man What is going on? She's got a flat tire. The world is okay. Just change it and move on You know, that's and that's what we have to understand Our comparison is strips us out of our focus enough for when we lose focus of jesus christ We will begin to live in fear and in failure and the third thing that the comparison doesn't takes away our worth Comparison takes away our worth When you begin to compare yourself to others you begin to belittle the things that you have You know, um I'm always shocked and surprised by the story of nick uh nick folts, you know without limbs without legs If if this guy Would to compare himself to a normal human being say god, why'd you make me like this? But if he would you know, take his own life, which you know, which did not position you're like, man I'm a mistake. God has forgotten about me. God has rejected me today thousands of souls will not be saved through his life He knew his self-worth he knew who is in christ jesus and he's accomplished so many more things with people that have legs And they have hands all the they're live living and you know in failure Why because when you know your true worth you can accomplish the destiny that got us placing your hearts It doesn't matter god said when god created man in in genesis He didn't he didn't look at his physical disposition the things that he had He knew that he was creating a soul and you cannot measure a soul You cannot measure a soul Jesus died has paid with his own blood for so this shows you that you know, we're not the skin stretch over a skeleton We're not our accomplishments. We're not how we look. We not, you know, how we speak how we perform Oh, I wish I could pray like jacob. Oh, I wish I can drum like zaki wish I could play like dan You know all these things, you know, it's not the things that you do It's the soul that god has placed inside your heart the soul that god has created said you I'm in love with you the way you are, you know before you even did anything. I formed you I gave you, you know, you became the apple of my eye. You became so dear to me Even if you made him, I say I still love you dearly I've given my whole son my begotten son for you because this how much I loved you despite your weaknesses Comparison strips us of our worth strips us of our focus and begins to make us look inward There's a few things that we compare ourselves to First thing we compare ourselves to people We begin to compare so when you compare yourself to somebody else You're basically telling god that god you created somebody that is not good enough When you compare yourself to a person to people around you Maybe to to what your your your parents has, you know gave you a standard, you know You should be like your brother. You should be like your sister, you know your uncle or whatever or whatever If you compare yourself, they might say whatever they want, but you still have the choice Of determining who you are I'm not saying that, you know, hey pastor martin say we don't have to care, you know I'm laying off gym. No, we have to take care of ourselves We have to strive to be better out of the out of the inner hearts knowing who we are in christ jesus Not out of fear not out of you know, he did this and I need to do that He drove this car and I need to drive this car in order to be happy when you compare yourself to people That's one of the biggest things that we do is we compare ourselves to people and that's the comparison trap that satan wants to put us in It's good to have a future but not at the expense that your future kills your present It's good. It's awesome. You know that you know, you see some people accomplishing awesome things like You know, they they they they come to this, you know Race with a run of marathon. They you know, they accomplish phd study and all these things But don't let their future somebody else's future Come at the expense of killing your present You have to have goals you have to have dreams, but don't let it make you act out of character Know who you are in christ jesus. Amen Somebody say I am the best me Someone I want you to say a lot. I am the best me There ever was And there ever will be come on if you believe it put your hands together for jesus get Comparing yourself with the future That's that's the second thing that the people compare themselves with they set dreams. They set goals They set accomplishments and they begin to and they begin to look down on by themselves You know, they let's say this year. They said, you know, I'm gonna lose You know, I'm gonna pay off all the debts and they pay it off only half and they begin to They begin that their goal that they've set for themselves. That's fine No dream for the stars and for the possible and you'll reach maximum But not at the expense of tarnishing your presence You know, I see some people come in and you know, I begin to talk to them and they're like, uh, you know I feel like a failure, you know, they're accomplished this, you know, I got fired from this job and this like that I'm like, bro, know who you are Know what god has given you everything that your hand touches will be blessed Everywhere that you will every time you walk in you'll be blessed every time you walk out You'll be blessed. That is who you are not your circumstances. I know you're reaching to maybe finish high school And maybe you failed. I don't know why but that's not who you are Your future is great awesome goals things that you that you can stretch yourself But let that be an encouragement to become better out of knowing who you are in christ jesus That you're not a failure that you're a victor that you'll be on top and you'll not be on bottom That you're fearfully wonderfully made that everything that it comes against you every weapon that is formed against you will not prosper That is the revelation that you have an out of victory Then you begin to build your future amen church And the last thing people compare themselves to is their past There's two ways Out of past your past can help you or it can destroy you You have to understand that part Jesus and and god begins to come to israel. He says that remember where i've taken you from So you can be thankful for what you have now But there's some people who begin to remember what they came from and they begin to be stuck where they came from All the best days are behind me or remember the party days Oh, I remember this fun times that I have and they begin to curse the present Every time you begin to think about your past you cripple your ability to think and to act in the present Remember this every time you begin to take yourself in the past you remember the past you glorify the past Oh, things were great in the past. Oh, you know, everything was awesome You cripple your ability to think To act and to exercise faith in the present God says remember and be thankful God has taken me out of drugs. God has taken me out from stealing. God has taken me out from a moral lifestyle God, I thank you for what you brought me to god I know it might not be the promised land yet, but I thank you I'm not I am not where I used to be You know, I might not be old there yet, but I am not where I used to be I used to be lost used to be depressed used to be on drugs all these things by god I thank you for taking me out of my past Your past Can cripple your mind your past can take away the the time where you can say thank you Jesus for what you've given me You know, I've here many times people say oh back in the day. We had this awesome time You know, we are fired for Jesus Christ. Look, so where's it now? Oh, I'm just going through wilderness But no, bro It's you know, the past is there to encourage you that God is faithful The passing to encourage you to say that God's mercy is good that you begin to say, you know Through the valleys and through the mountaintops. I'll still serve God I'll still run after God let your past be encouragement and not a disqualify for you to act in the present Amen church In some practical steps before we we finish with this. I just want to give you from practical steps How to overcome? Comparisons this this this works for me a lot number one is thank god in every situation You have to learn how to thank god in every situation This is this is one of the biggest key because life will throw curveballs You can be broke. You have problems. You can be middle class. You still have problems. You can be rich You still have problems. You can be the ultra rich. You still have problems in every season of your life You need to learn. I have food on the table or I don't have food on the table Blessed be his name. You got to learn how to you know, you drive you get pulled over The cop gave you a ticket. You weren't even speeding. You know, you got to learn how to thank god in that situation Yes, you made a mistake Learn how to thank god There's god says i'll make all things work together for good for those who love him All things work together. Yes, satan might use you know a betrayal a backstab Maybe you know just his brothers betrayed him the light of games they sold for him You know, but he failed on held on to god to say god whatever season that I am I know you're in control. You are my savior. You are my lord and you are in control Learn how to say thank you jesus You may be sick in your body begin to say god. I thank you for healing Learn how to begin to raise your hand in good times and big and bad times god. Blessed be his name Number two is realize that god is jealous about you God god is madly in love with you and there's nothing that you can do to stop it He loves you so much the you with the mistakes the you you know the the skin tone the color the the accomplishment the Failures the things that you're going to god says i am a jealous god don't worship anybody else because i'm in love with you I love you so much whatever you've done before you even given your life to jesus I already I already gave my son for your salvation. I loved you so much yet. You were sinners I formed you in your mother's wound and scribed your hand on the palm of my hands So we'll not forget you. I made you the apple of my eye. I knew you will fall I knew you'll make mistakes, but I loved you and there's nothing that you can do to stop that and the last one is that Whenever you see something or someone Succeeding where you want to be In order for that jealousy not to kick in to kick in go up to them congratulate them Hey, man. I'm truly happy for your success You know if you see brine's winning souls and you never won one in your whole life come up to him say hey I am i'm blessed you have you in my life. Can I learn from you? That's that's one of the quickest way Jealousy lives like this I've seen it so many times. I'm like this is somebody accomplishes You know certain things and you're like, you know, you're like man I've been doing it for years and years and this guy comes along just one time and it and it just took place and You know god, why and you know, I begin to compare what is he doing? Is his hairstyle see russian mexican american? What is going on with this guy? No go up to them Congratulations. You know what? I'm so honored to have you in my life. Can I learn from you? Then envy jealousy begins to leave And god's like instead instead of instead of you being destroyed by this comparison trap God begins to empower you and surround you with people in your life And begin to help you to accomplish destiny. Thank you for watching this content I hope this was a blessing to you if you're like me and you like to click on things Click on this Subscribe to our channel and the content will come to you every time we post it and remember the best is yet to come