This Is What Happens When You Start Doing Things Differently From Others by Rev. Dr. Sam Oye: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The World Does Not Reward Sameness

The world does not reward sameness. People will pass you by if you're the same. Nobody stops by to look at something that is the same with others. But dare to be different and then you will gain attention.

Your difference is not a defect. It is a divine design.

Gideon had to be born in a poor family in order for him to eventually become the leader. Moses had to fail and had to run away, and eventually had to receive a call from God to become the leader of over 2 million people.

Stop considering your difference as a defect. Begin to see it as a divine design. There's a reason why God made you this way. There's a reason why you were born in this geographical location of the earth. There's a reason why your beginnings were like this. And ultimately your future will not be like your past. You must learn to embrace the fact that your fingerprint is different.

The Battle of the Different

We call it the battle of the different. It's because of your dreams. It's because of your calling. It's because of your fingerprint, your voiceprint. It's because of your personality, your temperament. It's because of your wiring. Don't allow what you're going through to make you give up on who you are. You are unique. You are different.

The reason they treated Joseph the way they did was because they were not used to handling people who are different. Don't forget that the 10 of them were all the same. Judah gave up his identity to blend in. Simeon gave up who he was to blend into the 10. Everybody in the 10 gave up the different prophetic destinies on their lives to be the same.

The reason they can't stand you is because they are the same. You are different. The battles will be over if you choose to give up your difference and blend. "Behold, the dreamer cometh" — what that simply means is: all of us here have no dreams. That's why they said, "Let's throw him into the pit and see what becomes of his dream." It's the reason for the battle. If he would just stop dreaming, we would all be brothers.

Normal is overrated. Different is what we consider to be divine.

You Were Created to Stand Out

You were not created to conform. You were not created to imitate anybody. You were not created to disappear into the crowd. You were created to stand out, to transform, to illuminate anywhere you find yourself, to reveal the glory of God.

God is never apologizing for making you different. If God isn't sorry and never apologizes to anybody for making you different — why would you ever apologize?

The Separation That Precedes Elevation

When you start standing alone, it means the crowd has started falling away. Whenever you notice that there is a battle around your difference, just know that it is the beginning of a process of separation. The tension around your difference is because God is about to shift you from those who are not like you — those who are going to limit the expression of the different you.

For a moment it will look like you are alone — not lonely. And it is in that moment of being alone that God will begin to bring into your life fellow difference-makers. People that when you tell them what you're going through, they say, "Oh, I've been through that. I'm experiencing the same, too." All of a sudden you're meeting with high fliers. You're meeting with fellow eagles like you. You're beginning to meet with people who are dreamers like you, people who have vision like you.

Don't, out of sympathy, give up your identity.