Well, hey, what’s up, family? Welcome back, or welcome for the first time, to Thrive! I’m Darius Daniels, and I’m excited to have you with us. If you’re watching this live, shout out to you! You know how we do. I want you to say what’s up to each other in the chat. Come on! We’re in a virtual space; this is like a cyber sanctuary. We’re still gathering, but technology gives us the ability to really gather globally. So let’s say what’s up to everybody in the chat! I’m so excited about today.
Hey, I want to welcome those of you who might be jumping on for the very first time. We do this every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. We call it Thrive because this is what we believe: if we’re going to live our best life, we have to accept and embrace that Sunday is not enough. I’m going to say that again—if we’re going to live our best life, we need to accept and embrace that Sunday is not enough. Is Sunday important? Absolutely! But if I only worked out physically one time a week, would I be able to optimize physically? No. If I only ate one time a week, would I be able to optimize nutritionally? No. If I only managed and monitored my mind and mental wellness one time a week, would I optimize mentally? No! The same applies spiritually.
This is why we believe we need these midweek boosts. Thrive is one of the ways that we do this, and we try to take God’s Word and apply it to the five key areas of our lives: spiritual, emotional, relational, professional, and financial. We believe that when it comes to biblical interpretation, we want to interpret the Bible in a way that shows its relevance. We want to see its relevance in those areas of our lives because if we change those areas, we actually change our lives. We want to thrive in those areas! We don’t want to live sinking or just surviving; we want to live thriving!
It’s level three! If you’re watching me live, you know what to do—put the three in the chat! Well, listen, we’re in a teaching series called Embracing Excellence. Excellence is something that needs to be embraced; it has to be embraced. I want to leap into this lesson today. We’re going to be concluding this series soon, but I hope it’s challenging you, stretching you, and adding value to you. As we prepare to leap into this lesson, press that like button for me. All that does is help us put this teaching and channel in front of more feeds. Many of you say to me regularly that the reason you stumbled upon this teaching ministry is that it kept coming up in your feed. One day, you clicked it! If it’s adding value to you and blessing you, the way God wants you to respond to that is by being a blessing—not just someone God can get blessings to, but a person God can get blessings through. We are blessed to be a blessing, and what greater way can you bless someone than to bless them spiritually? When we improve spiritually, everything gets better.
Today, in our time together, I want to talk about the enemies of excellence—enemies of excellence. Throughout this series, we have attempted to articulate and establish what we believe to be a biblical truth: it is God’s expectation that we make the most of, maximize, and properly steward the gifts, talents, and acquired skills He has graciously given us. We can look at parables in the Bible, specifically a parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 25 about an owner who distributes five, two, and one talent to three different people and comes back later to ask them to give an account of how they managed and maximized what the owner, who represents God, gave them. I believe, as it is in that parable, so it is in our lives. God has given us all gifts, talents, and acquired skills.
Instead of becoming obsessed, fixated, intimidated by, or comparing myself to the five or the two that someone else has, what God expects of me is to properly manage what I do have. Somebody put in that chat right now: «Don’t be distracted!» There are times when we are unable to properly steward what we do have because we are so conscious of and consumed by what we don’t have. The person who received two talents in that parable in Matthew 25 could not properly maximize and manage their two talents if they were upset, offended, or felt they were treated unjustly because they didn’t receive five talents. God does not expect me to be responsible for what He has not given me. Oh my goodness, did you hear what I just said? God doesn’t expect me; He simply expects me to maximize what He’s given me. Because that person was focused in Matthew 25 and maximized what the owner gave them, they were given two talents, but when he came back, the man had flipped it to four. I want to tell somebody this is a flipping season! If this is…
