Mark chapter 6, verse 45, states, «Immediately, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd.» After leaving them, he went to a mountainside to pray. I’m going to read verse 46 again: after leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. After he left them, he went out, and then he went up, but he didn’t go up until he went out. I want to talk from this subject: I just need to know ahead of time if y’all are talking to me today or not. How’s that going to be? I just need to know so I can set my expectations. We good? We straight today? Okay. I want to speak from this subject: the traits of the great.
Family, I’d like to begin our time of teaching today by informing some and reminding others that your existence on this earth is not ordinary. In other words, I’m attempting to articulate that your presence on this planet is not a result of mass production. You are not mass-produced; you’ve been customized by your Creator. You have uniqueness, differences, and peculiarities that are necessary for your life’s purpose. You are not a carbon copy of any creation. In the words of the psalmist David, you have been fearfully and wonderfully made. David received this revelation, and after he stated he was fearfully and wonderfully made, this is what he did: he looked in the mirror. He didn’t have a mirror; this is a metaphor. He looked in the mirror and said, «Marvelous are your works.» This does not cultivate confidence in your goodness; it acknowledges the uniqueness of God’s goodness. David looked in the mirror and said, «God, you’re good.»
What am I attempting to do, family? I’m not attempting to infect you with arrogance; I’m encouraging you to embrace your uniqueness. Why? Because your greatness lies in your uniqueness, and a person who refuses to embrace their uniqueness will never experience their greatness. Can I hear a good «Amen» in the house? Yeah. And I say this because embracing a person’s unique identity empowers and enables them to overcome the Kryptonite called comparison. Comparison is a calling killer. It creates an appetite in someone else for something God never intended for you to have. If you’ve been customized by your Creator, then it means you’ve been built by design. It means that God placed everything, even if it is unrecognizable and even if it is underdeveloped, in you that you needed to do what you’ve been created to do. So if you don’t have it, it’s because you don’t need it, because God never created anyone with a deficit. Are you hearing me?
But the tendency to compare creates an appetite to covet. When someone is coveting what someone else has, they are subliminally suggesting to God that what you gave me wasn’t enough. If you had given me what you gave them, then I could be who I needed to be and do what I need to do. It’s comparison, and this is Kryptonite. How can we compare players that aren’t playing the same game? How can you compare yourself to someone who’s not playing your position? They don’t need your height because they aren’t playing your position, and you don’t need their skill because you aren’t playing their position. But there is a skill that resides within you that is absolutely necessary for the position you’ve been called to play. If you simply admire their position without desiring it, you can play your own position and see how great you are if you just play your part. Can I hear an «Amen» in the house? You’ve got a part to play, and nobody can play it like you. You may not do it like them, but if you do it as you’ve been created to do it, you may not fight Goliath wearing Saul’s armor, but if you get your slingshot and your five smooth rocks, David, you can take that giant down if you embrace your uniqueness because your greatness lies in your uniqueness.
Thus, we’ve got to kill the thing that can kill our calling. We have to kill the tendency to compare. The Bible speaks very clearly to this in the book of 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12. The Apostle Paul writes to people who compare themselves on all kinds of levels: spiritually, intellectually, and economically. Paul says to them, «Listen, this is what we do on my side: we dare not classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves.» Listen to this: «Because when you measure yourself by yourself and compare yourselves with yourselves, you are not wise.» He says not only is this not right; this isn’t even wise. It’s illogical, unproductive, and emotionally unhealthy. If I look at someone else and feel less about myself because of what I saw in them, that’s unhealthy. On the flip side, if I look at someone else and feel better about myself because of what I saw in them, that is unhealthy as well. If something has to be wrong with you for me to feel right with myself, then nothing’s wrong with you—something’s wrong with me. Comparison, comparison, comparison. Comparison is the womb that gives birth to the fruit of jealousy, and the purpose of jealousy is to mutate into a thief. Jealousy’s job is to steal from you, not…
