by Apostle Andre Pelser.

15 June 2008, 10 AM

Jesus said that you are worth more than two sparrows. If your heavenly Father can take care of two sparrows, how much more will He take care of you? Oh you of little faith. You are worth more than two sparrows. He didn't say you are worth more than one sparrow, because sparrows was so little worth, that they had to be sold two by two in the market place. How much more will your heavenly Father clothe you? The Lord wants you to have self-worth without going overboard. All these self motivational courses is from the devil, because Jesus says that you must crucify self. But He wants you to have self-worth. We need to find apostolic perspective on this, because God resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble. The proud resists God.

Romans 12- "I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God. 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to every one who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. But set your mind to be right-minded, even as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith."

You need to say to God that you present your body as a living sacrifice. It is much better to be a living sacrifice than to be a dead sacrifice. It is like getting at the alter and He says to you, okay, you can walk around but just remember that you are a sacrifice. You should have been dead, but He is giving you chance to live again. It is better to be alive than to be dead. Present your bodies a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable to God. Just think about what you do with your body and if it is acceptable to God. That is your service, your reasonable service, if it is holy.

Do not be conformed to this world. Do not speak like this world and do not be like this world. Be different. Stand up for God even though you might get mocked for a while, it makes you stronger. Don't let the world dictate you. Let the Holy Spirit lead you and guide you. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you might prove what is the acceptable and perfect will of God. You get transformed by the Word of God. Renewing your mind, renewing your thinking. Change the way you think, because if your thinking does not change, your speech will not change and your actions won't change. In Bible school I say to the students that when you come to Bible School, the first few months you think that you know all of this. But what happens is that your mind cannot conceive it and it also has not reach your heart yet. You haven't changed. Intellect often deceives you that you think that you have changed, but you haven't. Only after second year the students start saying that something is happening to them, because the Word is starting to work. The Word is starting to produce a harvest. You do not change by attending a seminar. You need to allow the Word to change you, but it takes time and it is a process. Transformation is a process and is not an event. Success is also a process. You aim to play for the national team, but it is a process to get there. It takes hard work and it does not happen over night. It is a process, because you have to practice and work hard. You have to make a lot of sacrifices. You have to give up time when other kids can have fun, you have to work and practice. It is hard work to get anywhere. It is a process, in life and spiritually, it is a process. God is busy with us. You know God is busy with you.

I thank God that He is so gracious, patient and long-suffering. But we heard last week that He sets boundaries for us. Because without boundaries repentance is a waste. So that you may prove what is God's good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Can you see the process? You must first of all find out that the will of God is good for you, otherwise you resist it. Then you must accept it. God's will for me is good. I accept God's will for me. Only then will you step into the perfection of it. We mostly resist God's will, that is why it is not perfected. That is our battle, the flesh and the spirit.

"I say, through the grace given to me"… this is Paul's opinion. He is very honest when he says that he is going to say something. It is his opinion, but it is worth listening to it. "I say through the grace given to me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think." That means that you must think something about yourself. You must have some self-worth, but not too high that makes you proud, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to every man a measure of faith. Your measure of faith should determine your self-worth, not your personality or your achievements, or your birth, family status or your wealth. That should not determine who you are. What should determine who you are is how you believe. If you can't believe something you can't do it. God has given you a certain measure of faith. If you can't believe something you cannot achieve it. When you learn to drive a car, until you can't drive by faith, you cannot do it. if you drive by your intellect it is horror, because your intellect cannot drive. You must release your faith that you can do it.

Whenever you do something stupid, most of us walk away telling ourselves how stupid we are and couldn't we have looked or do this or do that. But thank God for His grace. If your parents do not help you to have a good self-image, without making you feel proud, no one develops that for you. So at school, you might have one teacher who likes you, and you know it. That is your formative years. So He does not want you to think more highly of yourself than what you ought to think. So you ought to think something of yourself. That something is according to what you believe you can do. If you believe you can do something, then that is fine. Others might tell you "now who do you think you are?" But if you know who you are, you do not have to think about who you are. I am painfully aware of my weaknesses and shortcomings, but I also know my strengths. There are certain things I do well, and other things I will not touch, because it is not my strong points. I am very good at getting things done, I am very tenacious, although it takes me a very long time to get it done. You know who you are and need to make peace with it. God made you like that, and everybody else is always trying to change you. The way God made you, you are going to stay. But you need to think something of yourself. There is something you ought to think of yourself. You have to know who you are. Anything above that is pride and everything below that is inferiority.

Most things in life comes as a challenge for you. But if you know who you are and what you can do, you can meet the challenge. If it is something you can't do on your own, you can ask for help. Don't try and do something if you know you can't, that is when you need to ask for help. Humble yourself and ask for help. If you try and do everything by yourself, you will make a mess of things. All of us can only do a few things, the rest you need help with. Life is designed that way so that none of us can say "I do not need anybody." You need to ask for help so that you can say thank you, and the one that helped you feels worthwhile because they feel like they have done something right. Talk to people who do routine jobs, because they just sit there. All of them have a name, and the sweetest sound to anybody is their name. Give them a bit of self-worth. Talk to street sweepers and presidents alike. People measure you by the eye, we think more highly of people than what we ought t