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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 You are listening to Waters Church podcast. Waters Church is a multisite, multigeneration community of faith on the East Coast of America. Now for a message from our pastor.0:18 Life to the fullest part 4. We're gonna close out this series, a series of messages on a book that I wrote a book about called ending emptiness. If you have not gotten the book, get the book. And if you have gotten the0:28 book, make sure you do me a favor at amazon dot com and fill out a 5 star review. If you're not that impressed with the book, don't fill out a review. But,0:40 that's a very important work that I put a lot of effort into, and I pray it blesses you and and it strengthens your faith. And we have come to the final part of this series, life to the fullest. Here's the title of the0:50 message. Again, if you have your notes up. Why am I stuck? Why am I stuck? Let me say welcome to Apollo Beach. Let welcome to South Coast. Welcome to Norwood. Welcome1:01 to Guatemala, South Carolina, and also to the YouTube audience. And those of you who are here around the world. We're so glad that you are here, and I'm going to Woonsocket1:13 later today. So I'm not saying hello to Woonsocket, but I'm here in North Attleboro at the 8 AM, and everybody at 8 AM, give them a hand. Welcome them in. Come on. 1 church, many locations.1:25 Why am I stuck? Ecclesiastes verse 11. Before we get there, 1 more thing. August 20 first, mark it down in your calendar. August 20 first, really big Wednesday. Really1:37 big Wednesday where we are going to announce some moderate changes to our plans for our future. They're not big, but they are important to discuss. That we're going to also pray and fast for1:49 the 3 days before that. So from Sunday after church, you go to lunch, start fasting Sunday dinner right through to Wednesday lunch. A 3 day fast, often called for in the2:00 scriptures, often done by our church. We go after the Lord. We're gonna ask for his spirit. We're gonna ask for his favor. We're gonna ask for his power. And I believe2:12 we're gonna see miracles. I believe we're gonna see expansion. I believe we're gonna see lives healed, hearts made whole. The sick are gonna recover, and people are gonna have a new lease on2:24 life because where the spirit of the Lord is, anything is possible. In Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, need a better amen than that from the 8 AM. Are you? Did you get your coffee this morning? If you didn't get your2:36 coffee, just ask for the Holy Spirit. He's better than coffee. Praise the Lord. So we're gonna pray and fast for 3 days from August. What would that be? August eighteenth to August 20 first. Now I'm also2:48 considering, and based on all of our locations applause, and I will be monitoring this from our location pastors, a Tuesday night worship and prayer 1 hour session here3:00 in North Attleboro and potentially in Apollo Beach that same week. So back to back, Tuesday night, gather here, worship band, leading us in worship, spiritual moment praying, calling out to God, and then we're3:12 still fasting during that time, then coming back for the first, the really big Wednesday, that next day. I would call it spiritual emphasis week. How do we feel about that?3:26 K. I'm about 75 percent of the way there. Seems like you too are, you as well. So let me try 1 more time. How do we feel about that? Oh, a little bit better? I'm3:37 85 percent of the way there. Okay. We're move on. But keep your calendars for August 20 first nonetheless. Let's talk about this. Sometimes in life, we get stuck, and sometimes in life, we3:49 feel like we're stuck. And then sometimes in life, we don't even realize that we're about to get stuck. So wherever you are in that spectrum, this message is for you. And in this chapter, Ecclesiastes4:00 11, I wanna tell you, I got 5 verses from the Bible that are in my top 5 all time, and 1 of them is in this chapter. So I hope you have some life verses.4:12 This is 1 of my 1 of my life verses is in this passage that we just read. And some of you who have been here for a long time, you you already know which 1 it is. But we're gonna talk about that in just a moment, but4:21 here's what I want you to write down first in the top of your notes. Write this down. Everything God created is made to move. Everything God created is made to move. You are4:33 moving right now. By the way, I wrote a book about this too. Hey. It's called move. Your body is moving as you speak. Blood is flowing.4:45 Air in, air out, oxygen is happening throughout your blood system. Your veins and your arteries are pumping blood at thousands of miles per4:57 hour just going through your body right now. You are rotating on a big sphere in the middle of space. I think it's at 75 miles per hour. You are flying through space5:08 around the sun on that sphere as our entire solar system also navigate through the Milky Way galaxy. Friends, never tell yourself you're going nowhere.5:21 Cosmically, you are always traveling at incredible rates of speed. But if we're honest, sometimes our emotions just weigh us down. Sometimes our5:32 past pulls us back. Sometimes our future paralyzes us with, anxiety and stress. And I want to just remind you today, not just for5:44 you, but also for our church, we should be moving. Moving forward, not stuck in life. You're5:56 created to move. Somebody say, I am I am. Created to Created to move. Life will scare you. All you have to do is live a couple of seconds to6:08 realize that. You come out of the womb, and you're already crying. You're scared. What happened? Who took me out of that comfortable warm womb?6:19 Life did. That's how it happens. And then, you know, some at some point, you gotta put the pacifier away. Well, you won't, but your mom and dad will if they're good for you. At some point,6:31 you gotta learn not to go poopies in your pants. You know what I'm talking about? At some point, you gotta get on the big yellow scary school bus or get dropped off at Waters6:43 Academy. Somebody say amen. At some point, you gotta move from elementary school to high school and then potentially work or college, and then you have to face customer at your first job,6:55 and then someday you have to get to an altar maybe and face somebody that you're gonna commit to spending the rest of your life with, and that's gonna scare you, and then you're gonna have your own first child, and all7:05 the cycle of life happens through you and around you. But this is the truth. You can't stay where you are. Solomon is gonna talk about that in Ecclesiastes 11. You can't stay here.7:18 Movement will happen with or without your permission. So I would suggest this. You, if you're a follower of Jesus, the life of faith is just7:30 that. It is a life of faith. It is not a life of certainty. It is not a life of mapped out diagrams7:41 and road maps of where you're going to go and how long you're going to be there and what exactly is going to happen to you. So the sooner that you get a hold of that, the better. Because so many people are7:53 stifled, again, with anxiety and fear about what might happen that they never get something going in their life. And I'm really excited about this series because I wanna get something going, not just in my life, but in8:04 our church. We've got some opportunities that are coming up, really big Wednesday be here or tune in online because you wanna hear about that. I don't think that a church should stay where it is. I think a church should8:15 grow. I think a church should expand. I think a church should do everything that it can to make it as hard as possible for the people of the town in which that church is to go to hell. Anybody with me on that? I wanna8:27 make it hard for people to go to hell in Apollo Beach. I wanna make it hard for people to go to hell in North Attleboro. I wanna people I wanna do as much as possible so that people have no excuse. They can know the8:37 truth, and the truth can set them free prosperity, and the blessing, and the fruitfulness that God has in store for them as life moves forward. You're created to move, embrace him. But in this8:48 text, Solomon shapes this theme of movement and getting out of being stuck with 2 key ideas. I want you to write them down. These are the 2 key ideas that are foundational to the text. Number 1 key idea,9:00 and he keeps repeating this line. Here it is. Write it down. I don't know. I don't know. Now notice the texts in your Bibles. Ecclesiastes 11 verse 2. You do9:12 not know what disaster may happen on the earth. We don't, do we? And everybody who's ever run to the store for bread and milk before a blizzard knows exactly what we're talking about. How many of you have ever9:24 ended up with extra bread and milk that you did not need? You don't know. Right now in Florida, they are at church. Praise God. But they were being scared out of going to church because potentially a hurricane9:36 or a tropical storm. And I don't understand Florida because a tropical storm is just a regular Tuesday. That's what a tropical storm is. So we we don't know, but you can't let the storm stifle9:47 you. Amen, somebody. We serve a Jesus. We serve a God who can walk on the waters in the midst of the storms. So the storm doesn't determine our potential.9:59 The storm doesn't determine our faith. The storm doesn't determine our emotions. Jesus is Lord of the storm. I don't know. Good news, he knows.10:12 And if he knows, I'm good with that. He says in verse 2, you don't know the disasters. Verse 5, you don't know the way of the spirit that comes into the wombs of the bone to the bones in the womb of a woman. You don't10:22 know the work of God. Verse verse 6, you don't know which will prosper, this or that, or will both go together. And so what he's really being what he's really doing right here off the bat is he's saying, look, let's be10:34 honest about life. There's a lot about life that none of us know. And he's king. He's solemnly, he's at the pinnacle of life, and he still doesn't know. Look, life is made up of 2 groups of people. The10:46 people who understand they don't know and keep going, and the people who don't know and let it stop them. Which 1 are you? So on the basis of we don't know, Solomon10:57 says, therefore, we must go. Write this down. Key idea number 2, I must go. Just because I don't know doesn't mean I shouldn't go. Just because11:09 I'm not sure doesn't mean that I can't take a risk, a chance. You don't know a lot, but yet you can accomplish very much at the same11:21 time. So many young people are letting what they don't know stop them. Some of you young people think until until I get my master's degree, I really can't do exactly what I want. Don't be so foolish. Don't let11:33 the world shape all of necessities, these unnecessary necessities in your mind that that you can't actually go and do something until you have this, that, or the other thing. Some of you are saying, well, my life won't11:45 really start until I graduate college. Or you're saying, I won't really get started until I'm married. Or I won't really get started until No. Don't allow this world to fill your mind with11:57 all of these things that are required for you to do what God has desired. Amen, somebody. You can't live like that. You will stifle your potential, your future, and you won't12:08 walk by faith. Does anybody in this place or other locations know that God is a big fan of our faith? The scripture says in Hebrews 11 6 that it is impossible to please12:20 God without faith. That that without faith, we can't do what God wants. The scripture says that the just shall live by faith. The scripture says that we walk by faith and not by what? Sight.12:32 Sight. The Bible says that we fix our eyes on what is unseen, not on what is seen, because what is seen is temporal, but what is unseen is eternal.12:43 All ultimately, the Christian in Christ, you have, you understand, a jump start because God has given you the gift of faith. You understand? Faith is a gift. He's12:55 given you faith, not just, listen, not just to get to heaven. This building, these rooms where we are, this is not heaven's waiting room.13:07 No. This is an activation center. I'm hoping to program you. I'm hoping to fill you with a sense of possibility, with a sense of expectancy,13:19 with a sense of faith inside of you, that God is for you not against you, that better days are ahead of you than were behind you, that the best is yet to come in Jesus name. And13:31 just because you don't know everything doesn't mean you can't go and do great things. In Jesus' name. So Solomon is asking us to get unstuck, and that's13:43 the theme of the next 4 points. How do we get unstuck in life? Well, from Ecclesiastes chapter 11, 4 points, and then we're done. Number 1, stop playing it safe.13:55 You wanna get unstuck? Stop playing it safe. And this is exactly where Solomon starts in chapter 11 verse 1. He says in verse 1, what's the first word14:07 everybody? Cast. Has anybody ever gone fishing? You just cast. And and I went fishing this past weekend, usually, when I go fishing, I catch nothing.14:20 I always warn people, let's go fishing. I say, just be prepared to catch nothing. I mean, the Lord has not given me. I'm a fisher of men, not a fish. Okay? But I learned that you have to cast, and a14:31 cast is a striking you don't cast by going, me. You cast by whipping that pole as hard as you can so that thing gets as far out as possible. Well, this14:43 is a this is the movement that Solomon encourages for us. And he says, cast your bread upon the waters for you will find it after many days. Now what good14:55 is bread on water, and especially after many days? How many know that's a soggy piece of bread you don't wanna touch? Obviously, this is a15:07 metaphor. Bread could be interpreted in this passage as money. But I think what it is is sustenance. And here's what he's saying, cast what you15:19 have now onto the unknown of what could be later. And here here's how I see Bread is a a picture of sustenance. The waters is15:31 a picture of industry. And so what Solomon is saying is, in order to see your life move forward, you have got to get into the habit of continually taking some of15:42 what you have now and throwing it into investments and opportunities and risky endeavors that will only pay15:54 off in the distant future. Does this make sense? You cannot here's what he's saying another way. He you cannot just hold16:06 on to everything. That's called playing it safe. What portion of your life, what portion of your money, what portion of your plans are16:18 long distance plans that you are making investments in now that, listen, may or may not pay off, but you're good16:30 with that because it kinda brings some life to your existence. You you don't know, but you must go. Stop playing it safe. And here's the deal16:41 about risk. We always get a little bit scared about risk, and some people are under the impression that Christianity is is about the avoidance of risk. No. It's not. Christianity is about the embrace of risk. It really16:52 is. Because life is risky. Say it with me. Life is risky. Do you know how risky it is? You're not getting out alive.17:08 So you better live before you die. Take some chances. So Solomon is good chances that he's talking about, the industry of marine merchant marine.17:20 So, he was a merchant marine man, by way. He was a man who put his bread on the waters in boats, and he sent it out. And he trusted that the Lord would add to that venture.17:32 And in faith, in the life of faith as a Christian, you have to understand, risk alone isn't good, but risk with God is great. In fact, that's so important. Want you to write it17:44 down. Risk is good when God is involved. What the devil does is he tries to get you to take the wrong risks. Yeah. What the devil does is he tries to tell you to take the chance17:55 with sinful indulgences. And he, and I always say this to you guys, he front loads his plan with pleasure and back ends it with lots of pain.18:07 God front loads his options for your life with minimal pain and back ends it with tons of pleasure. Because even if this life is horrible for18:19 you for 80 years, you're in faith in Christ Jesus, good news. It's just a temporal dot on the spectrum of the universe's eternity to come. And if it stinks now, good18:31 news, there's an eternal joy that is yours in Jesus Christ. But please understand that I do not mean to intend that your life is going to stink for 80 years if you're in Christ. No. No. No. That's not how God works. He18:41 wants to bless and prosper his children. He loves you. He wants what's best for you. Trust in him. And when it comes to risk, ignore the devil's choices and embrace18:53 God's choices. Here's what Solomon did in first Kings 10 22. He actually lived what he said here. He got into merchant marine industry. Verse 22, it says this, for the19:05 king, that's Solomon, had a fleet of ships, not 1. He had a fleet of ships. And he said and it says, they were at Tarsh of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram.19:16 Underline these next 4 words in your notes. Once every 3 years. Somebody say those words. Once every 3 years. 3 years. The fleet of ships of Tarshish19:28 would come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes. Evidently, that was a hot commodity back then, and peacocks.19:41 And I and I think about what Solomon models for us here. He took his temporary sustenance that he had now, a portion of it. He put it on ships, and he sent it across the sea, and19:53 then he waited how long? 3 years. How long? 3 years. He waited 3 years. 3 years is 1075 days. I I want you to think20:05 about 1095 days. So 1095 days. Solomon waited 1094 days for 1 day.20:18 You gotta have a little patience if you're gonna be in the risk business. You can't expect a quick turnaround. God is not McDonald's. He does not20:30 he does not specialize in instant gratification. And I would suggest this, you gotta get into the 3 year plan when it comes to your life of faith.20:42 Some of you are just week long faith people. Oh, I just gotta get through this week. Oh, I just gotta get through Monday. Oh, I just gotta get through this month. What? That is a horrible way to20:53 live. Your every week is a drudgery. Every month is a pain. You're always waiting for what? A couple of days ahead. No. Stop that. I understand that every week will bring challenges. I understand that every day could21:05 bring a challenge. But what are you thinking about in 3 years? And let me let me just kinda confront something in some in some of you. I would suggest that what you are and what you have right now21:17 is the result of what you did 3 years ago. So if you want things to change, relationally, financially, socially,21:28 professionally, make some decisions today that you're gonna have to wait 1094 days to see.21:40 It's not instant. Be please understand that sometimes we will take a step of faith and nothing will happen. Okay. Just because nothing happened as soon as we took the step of faith does not mean that God21:51 has not gone to work on that faith. We fix our eyes on what is unseen. So sometimes, Christians, you will take a step, you will ask the question, you22:03 will apply for the job, you will put it yourself out there and nothing happens, and it's just a desert. And nothing is going on, but it doesn't mean that in the unseen realm, the angels aren't going22:15 to work, the principalities aren't getting defeated, the devil is not getting stifled in your life, and God is not on the move. No. He's working all things together for the good of those who love him and are called22:25 according to his purposes. Risk isn't instant reward. It is long term investment in what God has in store for you. By the way, Jesus22:36 encouraged risk. He encouraged risk. He did not tell the disciples, okay, I have saved you. Now sit quietly and wait until I come again.22:48 No. He said, wait a couple days for the Holy Spirit to come. And then you're gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth. Do you understand? We're on the other side of the22:58 earth when Jesus said those words. And we're here worshiping that Jesus because the people who followed that Jesus in that moment took some risks to take the gospel out of the city that they were living in. Which is why23:10 we need to take the gospel out of our churches and plant other churches. Which is why you need to take the step of faith to maybe maybe talk to that coworker this week about Jesus. Talk to that23:22 neighbor this week about coming to church with you next week. What risks are waiting for you to take? Jesus shared 2 pair parables, not 1, 2 parables on men who were given23:33 investment opportunities. 3 servants in each parable. Matthew 25, Luke 19, And he says, go and take this money that I've given you and put it to work, and I'm coming back to check on my23:45 investment. The Bible says in both parables, the first 2 men came back and they doubled their investment. Can you understand that God wants things to double for you? He wants things to go23:57 well for you. In both of those parables, the third the third servant was scared, was worried, was nervous, and thought that the master was angry with24:09 him. And he took what God what the master had given him, and he found a hole, and he dug it, and he buried it, and he covered it with sand. And when the master came back, he pulled it out, and he said, here, I was scared24:19 of you. I thought you were against me. I thought you were out to get me. Here is what you gave me. And the Bible says in both of those parables that that servant was severely judged. That servant was severely punished.24:32 Why? Because he thought the master was against him. Friends, how many Christians are sitting in churches today? How many pastors are sitting in church today? How many leaders in the Christian movement need to get their24:43 act together and realize God's not against you. God is for you. God wants to bless you. God wants to empower you. God wants to send you forward. In Jesus, you say, know, but I'm a24:55 bad person. That's what the cross was for. You say, I've sinned terribly. That's what the blood is for. You say, I'm not a good person. That's what redemption's all about. He takes what the devil did to you,25:07 and he turns it into a glorious testimony for you. That's the business that I'm in. That's the faith you need to have. There's no 1 who is good. The more the sooner we get to that25:18 statement, the sooner we can get to the statement of, Lord Jesus, I ask your forgiveness from my sins, and I pray for your cleansing, and he makes you a brand new person from the inside out, and he25:30 sets your course on heaven. And all the way there, he adds abundance along the way. Jesus said, I have come to give you life and life abundantly.25:41 Don't live in fear. Live in faith. Get unstuck. Stop playing it safe. Number 2, stop sinking everything into 1 thing. This25:53 is the people who like to put all their eggs in 1 basket that Solomon is going to challenge. And he's going to challenge some of you today because he says, look, you you gotta give you gotta26:05 diversify. Verse 2, give a portion to 7 or even to 8. Now right there, that phrase, give to 7 or even 8, is actually a Hebrew euphemism. It's a26:17 Hebrew figure of speech. That 1 commentator said could mean an indefinite number. An indefinite number. Give portions26:29 of your life to an indefinite number of opportunities. So what he's saying here is, spread it out even in26:40 finance, in the stock market, in, you know, money management. You don't put all your money into 1 stock. That's foolish. You gotta put it into several. You gotta try26:52 different investment opportunities. You gotta read the news. You gotta understand where the movement's going, what's happening. You can't just sink all of your life into 1 thing. Here's the truth for you. Again, back to27:04 what I said before, some of you are sinking everything into 1 thing, and you don't even realize it. You're sinking everything into 1 degree from 1 college that will give you 1 job. No no27:15 wonder why you need the government to pay your loans back. You some of you are saying, I I I'm gonna sink all of my life into this 1 person, and I'm gonna put all of my efforts into this 127:27 relationship, and you cut everybody else off, and you cut all your friends out, and it's just you and them, and you want to live in this kind of like weird, you know, ethereal romantic bliss, that does not exist.27:40 And if you're not careful, if you're dating them, they could walk away. If you're married to them, they could divorce you. You don't know. Therefore, do not put all of your life into 127:52 single thing. Here's another way to say it. Try stuff. Turn to your neighbor and just say, try some stuff. What haven't you tried? That28:04 because because you're so you're so singularly focused on that. And sometimes you don't even have to have the 1 thing to be so singularly focused on it. You miss all the opportunities that are walking around you.28:14 Sometimes it's just the well, when I finally meet the 1 and all these other opportunities are lift up your head and think, okay. Well, what can I get involved in? Right. Amen. Who can I get to know? What what what28:25 industries can I learn? Right? So so so some of you, that's where you gotta start doing you you gotta start putting more than 1 ship into the water. You understand that Christopher Columbus discovered America? Yes, he28:36 did. Okay? And and and and he took a big risk. And I know he was a bad guy in so many ways. I understand that too. But that God doesn't use only good people. Okay. So yeah. He didn't sail across the ocean blue with28:48 1 ship. He sailed with the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Marina. And it was a good thing because the Santa Marina hit a reef in what is now29:00 modern day Haiti and got a big hole in it and couldn't sail anymore. Good thing he brought 3 ships, not 1. See, some of your ships are gonna hit the reefs. Some of your endeavors are29:12 gonna fail. So you better have other options on the table. I would suggest this, diversify your giving. Diversify your investing. Diversify your purchasing. Diversify your29:24 hobbies. Diversify your interest. When I was in high school, I was like, I'm gonna try everything. And I was involved in so many things. I tried basketball, and I didn't get on the team. It failed. What if I had only put29:35 all my hopes into basketball? I would be a hopeless person for the rest of my life. So I tried baseball, and I didn't make the team. So I finally settled on cross country because anybody can run. Amen, somebody. And I29:46 actually made the team. Praise the Lord. And I actually tried out for golf, and guess what? Everybody stunk, so I made the team. And I went to the athletic banquet, and I got a letter for golf of all things.29:58 Right? And I didn't just do sports, I got into jazz band and orchestra and choir every night of the week. Yes. Choir. I said it. I'm not ashamed to say it. I sang in the choir.30:13 And through all of that, God started to plant different seeds in my life for my future. Not everything is part of my life today, but a lot of it is. Not30:24 only in school, but I got not only in in band, and not only in sports, but I got involved. I I joined the math league. The math league. I was a mathematician sportsman. Yes. We would30:36 go sit at the table and figure out formulas. We were the nerds of nerds. And I got involved I I volunteered as a volunteer firefighter. You know, you gotta try different30:48 things. Life is too short to do a few many things give portions of your life. Spread yourself out, not too thin, but try some stuff,31:00 and you might see God blow up your life. He was an investment banker working at d e shaw and company in New York, a major31:12 hedge fund firm in the 19 nineties. He was making several hundred thousand dollars a year. His life was set, But he had something stirring up inside of him, and he watched the Internet come of31:24 age. And he realized that if he started a business with the Internet, he could possibly possibly do something pretty significant. So he stepped out in faith. He uprooted his entire family. He moved across the country to31:34 Seattle, and he opened up a small online bookstore. His name was Jeff Bezos, and the store is now called Amazon dot com. But he had to leave what was safe.31:47 He had to step out of what he knew and understood to see his life expand. Where do you need to step out? Where are you putting all why are you putting all of your focus on 1 thing? When God has31:59 many opportunities for you? And friends, we've got no excuse. This is America, the land of the free Amen. And the home of the Free. Oh, how we forgot that line in32:11 COVID. Suddenly, it was the home of the scared. That was the worst part about the whole pandemic, wasn't it? Be scared. Be scared. And everybody who said be scared was considered a hero. I never in my life32:23 had heard. What happened to FDR? The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. What happened to Winston Churchill? We will never surrender. Never ever ever will we stop. What happened to the soldiers of World War32:34 2? What happened to the American spirit of endeavor and and courage and and going after the this is the land of the free and the home of the brave. If you wanna live here, you better get some bravery in your32:46 life. Because they're trying they're trying to scare you on a nightly basis. And I'm sick of it. We32:58 are the people of faith, of future, and of possibility. Number 3, get unstuck. Stop the paralysis of analysis. Alright. I'm gonna talk to all33:10 the perfectionists in the room because you people really tick me off. You need everything to be exactly right. And I just wanna tell you, that's33:21 fantasy. There's nowhere in life where everything is exactly right. You're going to have to learn if you're gonna move forward in life, you're gonna have to learn to handle33:34 a big honking suitcase of not ready yet, and pull it behind you down the terminal that is called life. Verse 3, Solomon says, if the33:46 clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. What does that mean? Here's what he says. Sometimes you're gonna be looking up and you're gonna see clouds full of rain. Here's the problem with that. And33:57 Floridians, you all know this better than anybody. You never know when it's gonna fall, and you never know where it's gonna fall. So are you gonna hedge your bets now? Are you gonna say, well, I'm not gonna go out. Well,34:09 I'm not gonna do that. Well, it looks like it's gonna snow. Well, it looks like it's gonna rain. Well, it looks like it's gonna hurricane. Well, it looks like a blizzard. No worries. I mean, Friends, don't make the34:16 weather channel your favorite channel. The clouds are full of rain. It's gonna rain. Yes. Understand. And then he says this line, which doesn't make any sense at all on the surface. He says, and if a tree falls to the34:28 north or south to the place where it falls, there it lie. What he's talking about here is that you can't stop some things from happening. If you've ever felled a tree, and I have felled many34:40 trees in my life, that's another interest of mine, cutting down trees and chopping up wood. Where it falls is where it falls. And you can make all the plans that you want. It's gonna fall where it's gonna fall. And then34:50 when it falls, you can't move it. Even a little tree that's about 6 inches wide, when that thing falls, it's heavy. And you try to move it, it's almost impossible. So35:02 what Solomon is saying is learn to embrace the things that you can't do anything about. You can't do anything about the rain falling, and you can't do anything about the tree falling.35:14 But don't let what you can't do anything about stop you in life. This is where our news networks come in and paralyze you with fear and uncertainty.35:26 You can't do anything about the near the Middle East. You look. 20 24. You can't really do anything about the election and its results. So what are you gonna do? Are you gonna let it35:38 stop you? Here's how Christians often do this. Oh, look. If they win the election, then definitely Jesus is coming and the rapture is happening. And I just have to oh, friends. Listen. We have elected some dim witted35:50 morons to public office before, and Jesus still hasn't come. I think he's got a work for the church to do in spite of what Washington DC is doing. And36:02 we don't let Washington DC dictate our faith. We let the Lord Jesus and this scripture dictate dictate our faith. We are the people of the word of God. We are the kingdom of God. We are the light of this world. We are36:12 not of this world. So what this world does with all this nonsense and all this fear all this fear mongering, that's not our mindset. We march to his beat. Amen.36:23 Okay. Here it is. 1 of my top 5 verses in all the Bible verse 4. He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.36:35 Oh, I love this. Another translation of this verse says, if you wait for perfect conditions, you'll get nothing done. Some of you are like, I just wanna be 100 percent36:47 sure. I wanna be 100 percent sure before I do this. There's no such thing. The best you can hope for is to be 73 percent sure. That means that 2536:59 27 percent of everything and anything you try, you're gonna be completely in the dark about. And that means that you're gonna have to kind of fake it till you make it sometimes. There's a guy there's another guy. He was37:10 in management, he was a management trainee at JCPenney in the 19 forties in Des Moines, Iowa. He worked there for 18 months. He gained a lot of valuable business experience,37:22 but it really wasn't his gift. His boss told him that he was too lenient with customers, and he was terrible at keeping the books. Then came World War 2, and he got into the37:34 army, and he fought for his country, and he served well. He got out of the army at the end of the war. He took out a loan for 20000 dollars from his father-in-law and 5000 dollars of his own money, and he37:45 invested it in a in a store called the Ben Franklin variety store. And he ran that store pretty well, but eventually, the lease was revoked and he lost the store. Now37:57 he's got a bad reputation and 1 business failure. It doesn't deter him. He goes and moves down 3 towns over and he opens another Ben Franklin variety store, and that 1 does exceedingly well. But his boss doesn't like the38:09 way he runs the store, and he has a conflict with management. So he decides to start his own store. And in 19 62, he opened the world's first Walmart.38:22 Undeterred by what people said about him, by the fact that he wasn't a good bookkeeper, by the fact that war came and upended a good chunk of his young life.38:34 Man, I'm I'm looking at today's young people and they let the sniffles stop them. They let a disease with a 99.6 percent survival rate38:46 shut them in their homes, and some people have never come out, at least mentally and emotionally. We gotta get our coverage back. We gotta get our spirit back. We gotta get our possibilities back.38:57 But if we continue to look at the clouds, we'll never get anywhere. Verse 5, he says, again, as you do not know the way of the spirit that comes to the bones of the womb of a woman with child. Now this 1, I loveShow more
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