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[00:00:25] Speaker B: Well, good morning again and welcome. And I'm glad that you are here, especially if you're a guest. Welcome and we're happy to have you. Want to welcome all of you who are watching online, thank you for that. Thank you for sharing the services with your family and friends. We're in a series called free and I am absolutely convinced it is the will of God for you and I to operate in the realm of freedom, to have enjoyment in all that we do. The Bible says Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly. Some translations say have it to the full. Have you ever thought about it? Living is what you are alive to do. And so many people are living far below the level God would have you live on. And I don't think that is the will of God for his kids. Now we're going to go through seasons where we're tested and tried and they're harder than other seasons, but that shouldn't be every season. Sometimes you have to evaluate in your life. When life gets hard, you have to ask yourself this question, is this a cycle or is this a season? Cycles are things I bring on myself. Stupid is and stupid does. And I sometimes will just get into a cycle of behavior, of decision making that brings about a bad consequence. I talked a little bit last weekend about people going through a hard time distant from God. That affected them financially, affected them relationally, simply because of the consequences of choices that they've made. So sometimes what we go through in life, if we're honest, it's more of a cycle. And we have to break those cycles. And you can't be aware of it or you can't change it until you're aware of it. I mean, step one, you have to own it. You have to say, I recognize I am my biggest problem. I don't know about you. I'll say this parenthetical to that. I'm the biggest problem I face. I have more trouble keeping me spiritual than anyone else. I'm the biggest challenge I face. And if you're honest with yourself, you'll have to admit you and I are the biggest challenges that we'll ever face. So I have to ask myself when I'm going through a difficult experience in life, is this a cycle or is it a season? It's a season now. There are seasons of planting, seasons of plowing, seasons when you'll sow, seasons when you'll reap. There are seasons when you'll do well. There are seasons when you won't do well. That's the ebb and flow of life. It's a principle of life. And so seasons will end. You may be in a hard season right now. That season will end. That's the good news about the bad news. It will end if it's a season and not a cycle. And in this series, we're talking about living through the seasons with a sense of freedom, knowing that that's how God has desired us or designed us, rather, what he desires for us is to enjoy a season of freedom. Now, with that said, I can tell you, and again, I'm talking to Noah about a flood when I say this, that the greatest pressure we have and the greatest bondage anyone has is in the realm of resources, is in the realm of finances.
Did you know more than half of the marriages that break up will break up because of financial pressure? A disagreement in the house over how we manage our resources. It's so prevalent that I almost think ought to incorporate into my wedding ceremonies till debt do us part.
And it's one of those things that we have disagreement over.
They said theirs was the perfect couple, except for one fatal flaw. One was fast on the deposit while the other was faster on the draw. And so you have to come to an agreement in your home about your resources because everything is pulling at you. Have you noticed that everything is pulling at your resources? There are some great charities out there, towers to tunnels. There's some wonderful charities that deal with veterans, and I love all of them. I'll watch them on television. I don't know about you, but I'm sitting there watching them going, I'd like to do something for them. And then all of a sudden that chick comes home with the dog that's freezing to death.
I'm like, dad, Gummin ought to help that dog.
If I don't give in the next 5 minutes, that dog is going to freeze to death. Now, if it were a cat, no, I'm just saying tough luck. But here's the thing.
Here's the thing. You and I, we are limited resources. We have limited resources. So you have to, when you look at how God has blessed you, great or small, you have to prioritize and be intentional about how you spend resources. Now, just as valuable as your resources are, your time is valuable. Look, you can make more money. You can't make more time. Your time is the most valuable asset about you. That's why you have to be intentional and you have to be purposeful with how you're doing. Both. Now, if you really want a quick evaluation of how you're doing and where your priorities are, check two things. When you get home, pull up your account, your bank account, or look at your checkbook and see where the preponderance of your resources are going. And look at your calendar and see where the preponderance of your time is going. Your checkbook and your calendar will tell you what your priorities really are. And so I'm saying, since you're a limited resource, I'm a limited resource. If I'm going to manage what God is giving me, well, I have to be intentional and I have to prioritize because it's going to be stressful around the house when we don't manage all of that well. Now, the Bible actually has a lot to say about managing these resources. In fact, when the Bible speaks of money, in fact, in ecclesiastes, chapter ten, verse 19, the Bible says money answers everything. It answers here at the front. Wording answers everything. Probably half the Prayers in this room would be answered with a bigger check.
And money. Have you ever hear the expression money talks? Well, if you don't manage your money well, it will talk. What it'll say is bye bye.
So you have to do well in the resources of your time and in the resources of money. Listen to how the Bible prioritizes what I'm talking about. The Bible uses the word believe. Now that's an important word, right? I'll close the service in a little while. Challenging people who haven't placed their faith in Jesus to believe, to trust him. That's important. That's heaven or hell, right? So the word believe is essential. It mentions believe 272 times. The Bible mentions prayer to pray. And we pray often. Pray without ceasing. Pray for one another. And we should. We pray about all things, heavy things and light things and good things and bad things. We should pray. And the Bible mentions prayer 371 times. The Bible speaks of love. Love is the greatest command. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. If you really love God, you'd never violate a command against him. If you loved your neighbor, you would never violate a command against them. So love is the greatest commandment. According to what Jesus taught, love is counted 714 times. But listen to this. Resources money giving is mentioned 2152 times in the Bible. I'm just saying it has much to say about how we manage the things God has given us and what he uses to bless us with resources is our work, our career. You may call it your vocation. And by the way, vocation is a beautiful word for what you do. It comes from the latin voca. And the latin word voca means calling. Did you know you have a calling on your life that is as significant as the calling I have on mine? I'm called into ministry. I could just as easily be a business person. I could just easily be sitting next to you listening to some other guy up here. Go on for 25 minutes. I could be sitting right out there with you. But God has called me specifically to do what I'm doing, just as he's called you to do what you're doing. So your job, your career, your work really is a calling. And sometimes you have to align different experiences. You have to get away from some and embrace others to discover God's unique calling. But it is a calling, the things that God has called on us to do. It is a calling of God on our life that we're to work. Now, 800 references in the Bible, over 800 deal with our work. I hear people say from time to time, man, if sin had not entered the picture, if we were back in the garden of Eden, we wouldn't have to work. That's just not true. The Bible, if you look at the record, the Bible instituted work before sin entered the picture. Here's what God said to Adam. He said, take care of this place. You've got a job. The original job was to be a landscaper, was to be a gardener. Your job is to take care of this planet. You are to be a steward over my earth. And so he gave him a job. Now, what happened when sin entered the picture is the job got harder by the sweat of your brow, he said, thistles and thorns will be out there where they weren't before. So sin complicated work. But my point is, God created us to work. In fact, in heaven, we're going to be there for all eternity. And I've told you, we're not just going to be setting on cloud strumming harps. Good Lord, does that sound boring to you? After a while? Have you ever heard harp music? How much of that could you do?
I guarantee you nobody has a CD of harp music. Nobody pays a concert at Dickie's arena and says, I'm going to go, man, they're the best harp band in town.
You don't. So you're limited as to how much harp music you could tolerate. So that's not what heaven is. God's going to give us assignments. It's going to be wonderful and incredible and we're going to have things to do in eternity. I think the gifts that we have here, he'll give us those gifts there and we'll work those out in perfection. I think God is going to give us things to do in eternity where we'll be motivated and so thrilled and overjoyed. My point is, God has created us to work. Now, I hope this doesn't depress you when I say this, but did you know, statistically you'll spend 40% of your life at work?
Here's another thrilling statistic. 150,000 hours of your life will be spent working. That's a lot of time, and that's a lot of your life that's going to be spent at work. And here's what's sad about it. One third of Americans when surveyed said, I hate my job.
One out of three, look at the person to your left, right. Quick. Look at them. Look at them. Look at that person to the right.
Do they look unhappy? Well, it might be you. You might be the one that hates your job. I'm just saying one in three don't like what they're doing. In fact, two thirds of the people in the workforce will say, I'm in the wrong job. And sometimes in your work, you may be the right person, you may be in the wrong job. Now, when you're young, that's okay. You start figuring it out, man. When I started out, I did the lawn and I cleaned the toilets at church. And you've never been in ministry till you've had your arm in a toilet up to your elbow. That's ministry now. And I'm saying, I did that. I loved it when I was doing that. And I've done just about everything you can do in the life of a church and trying to discover God's unique calling on my life. Many of you have gone through career changes. You've tried one job and you moved to the other job while you were trying to find and dial in your unique design and align it with your desire. And so there are a lot of people, some two thirds say, I haven't aligned my design with my desire. I'm still looking. Sometimes people struggle in a job situation, not that you're just the right person in the wrong job. But what is called in business, the Peter principle, and this happens in management. I've been guilty of this. The Peter principle is simply this. When you elevate a person to the level of their incompetence, you work with anybody like that, they've been elevated to the level of their incompetence. They were a great sergeant till you made them a general and you ruined them. And so sometimes you have a person in the work environment. They're the right person in the wrong job, they're a good person, but they have the wrong responsibility. They're in over their head. They've outpunted their coverage, and it creates an environment that is difficult even on the workplace. Now, let me say this about work. There's a difference between someone who can work and someone who won't work. There are seasons when you may be disabled. There are seasons when you retire. And so you'll do something differently. Maybe your work at retirement is just take care of your house and piddling around. Take care of loving on your kids and grandkids. That's great. That's great. All retire means is you've changed the set of tires, you've retired, you put a new set on and you're doing something different. Right? So there's nothing wrong with that. So I'm not talking about people that retired. I'm saying there's a difference between people who are very able bodied, who can work, and yet they refuse to work. In fact, the Bible says in second Thessalonians 310, this is harsh. Second Thessalonians 310 says if a person refuses to work, they shouldn't eat. So he said there should be a works component with everything that we do in life. Now, here's what I want you to understand. It is possible to love your life and to enjoy your work because both of those things matter to God. Have you ever thought about your career matters to God. Your work matters, matters to God. It is the way through which he's going to bless your family, the way through which one day you may be able to retire. It is the way through which you can take some time away without being stressed financially. So God will use your career and he'll use your work. God will use that as a means of blessing you. In fact, Ecclesiastes 322 we were meant to enjoy our work. Did you hear that? We were meant to enjoy our work. Ecclesiastes again, 322 that's the best thing we can do. Wouldn't you love to have a job you look forward to getting up to go do every morning. That's what he's talking about. Now, to get there, you may have to make some changes. You may have to plow your field under and replant. Resell. I was in a great situation at our former church. I loved it. It's a church I grew up in. My dad retired. They called me to follow him. I'd been on staff from the time I was a junior in high school all the way through. After I graduated on into college, I remained on staff. Cindy and I both served on staff. My dad retired ten years into my tenure, and they called me to follow him. Greatest honor of my life. I served in that church for another twelve years. So grew up there, spent 22 years on staff there, and all of a sudden, God started stirring in my spirit. I started feeling a sense of discontentment and feeling that God was wanting me to do something different. Cindy felt the same way. So what I did, I started tweaking and making some big sweeping changes in the church. And it was met with resistance. They just didn't want to change. And if you've ever tried to change a traditional church, it's the equivalent of kick starting a 747.
So after a little while of realizing this isn't working, all of a sudden, God was really. He did not. I didn't hear an audible voice or anything like that. But what he was saying into my heart is, it's not them that needs to change. It's you. And all of a sudden, I became the wrong guy in a good job. The wrong guy. I'm sorry, the right guy in the wrong spot. And so God planted this church in our heart to go out and do something a little different. So we did. It changed our life, thank God. It's changed the lives of tens of thousands of people over the 25 years we've been doing this. And now with a CRC, it's amazing what God is doing in this place. What's my point? My point is, God stirred in my heart to give up what I had to get something better. And that was the way it works. Sometimes I was dissatisfied where I was. I felt like I'd hit every rock on that hill trying to find Flint to get a spark to move it. I was so discouraged. I felt like if it moves around here, I either have to push it or pull it. You ever been a job like that? If it moves, I'm pushing or pulling. And so I felt like all God was doing is pulling the feathers of the nest out from under me and making the nest so uncomfortable to teach me how to fly. He'll do that in your job sometimes he'll make you so uncomfortable where you are because he wants to move you to the next stage or phase of your effectiveness because your time is limited. So he wants to get you somewhere where your work can be beneficial. So once you do that, colossians 323 says, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, knowing you are working for the Lord, not other people. Do you realize when you look at your job, you look at your career? Yeah, there's structure. You'll have a manager, you'll have a boss, you have an owner, you have someone, a board of directors, you have someone you're responsible to. But the Bible says regardless of the corporate structure or the work structure you're under as a Christ follower, we work for the Lord. And everything we do, our attitude, our work ethic, we ought to do it as our worship back to God. Now, let me give you two verses here. I just want to share with you, and I'll give you the outline. I'll really get to my notes here this morning. I've been busted on that. You're not giving me your notes. I'm going to do that today. Proverbs 1423. Listen to this. We should have this available for you. Proverbs 1423. All hard work brings profit. Remember I said your career is a way by which you can take care of yourself and your family. You have money to give to others. So all hard work brings profit. But mere talk lends to poverty.
Talk is cheap. And then the second proverb is the story of the ant. The metaphor, proverbs six, go to the ant. Look at the ant, you sluggered. And he said, if you're struggling, you're lazy. You're having trouble getting motivated. Go look at the ants. He said, consider its way. Be wise. It has no commander, overseer or ruler, yet it stores up provisions in the summer, it knows how to save, and at the same time gathers its food in the harvest. When I talk about saving in the harvest in the summertime so that you can spend in the winter, I was reminded of Joseph. You remember the genius of Joseph whenever he said, let's store seven years of grain in the barn because there's seven years of famine that's coming, probably folks, one of the best businessmen in the Old Testament was Joseph. And when you study the life of Joseph, he was such a good steward of everything that had been given him. I mean, he so impressed pharaoh that he became the second highest in command of pharaoh. He was the prime minister of Egypt. And Joseph started out with nothing. He's a country kid. Dad made him a coat of many colors, and his brothers were jealous of him and tried to kill him. I mean, he had a hard life coming up. He was not born with a silver spoon. He had to fight and work for everything that ever came his way. He was faced with more opposition and oppression than anyone, I guess, in the Old Testament, and yet he fought through it and became one of the most successful business people in the Bible. In fact, my focus of my talk this morning is really in Genesis 46 and 47. That's your reading assignment today. I don't have time to read those two chapters, but this is where my thoughts are going to center on. For your consideration this morning, I want to talk about four business principles that are great stewardship principles that Joseph employed that will work in your life and in your business. Number one, he employed insight. Insight. And you see that in Genesis 46, verses 31, down through chapter 47, verse twelve. What do I mean by insight? Joseph knew more about his job than anyone else. In other words, he was good at what he did. He had insight. Someone is well said. Good leaders are learners. Leaders are learners. You never stop learning.
I can tell you in a church context, we look at other churches, we look at different denominations. I even look at atheists. What are you doing that's working? If you're working with people, you can learn something from anyone. Now, you'll find good examples of good examples and you'll find good examples of bad examples, but they're out there. And so we should learn from one another. And so you have to have insight if you're going to be effective at what you're doing. And insight, guys, has a lot to do with perspective. You have to know that your business life is seasonal, as I said a moment ago, meaning you're not always going to reap, you're not always going to close deals, you're not always going to get bonus. There's going to be tight spots that you're going to face a good example of. This is one king 17. You remember when Elijah was sent to the widow and to her son, and when he arrived at the scene, she had just enough to feed one more meal for her son and for herself, and she assumed she was going to die. I mean, she was a woman with limited resources and those resources were going away. And God knew this woman. He loved this woman. And he sent Elijah to her house and she followed his challenge. And it changed her life. You know what he did? You know the story. He said, then put God first. Make him. Make God the priority. And when she made him the priority, it changed her perspective. Can I say this about that?
God doesn't always work in the things that we've lost. And I can tell you from someone that's lost some people and lost some things that are just never far from my thoughts and are always on my heart. I can tell you the biggest work God is doing in my life is not in the things that I've lost. I look back with fond memories. I thank God for all that I had. But here's where God works. God works in what we have left. What we have left. When Elijah asked the woman in first king 17, what do you have? What do you have left? Did you know? God will not hold us accountable for what we don't have. He's not going to hold you responsible for resources you never had. He's not going to hold you responsible for time that he didn't give you. God will only hold us to account for the things that we were given. And so it's important that you change, so your perspective, and when you change your priority, your perspective will follow. And her perspective began to change. God began to provide for she and her son. And she realized, well, as I put him first, the Bible says the barrel of meal never wasted, the cruise of oil never was emptied. Why? Because she honored God and she made him first in her home with her time and with her resources. So it changed her priority. It changed her perception. By the way I said perspective, it changed. Thirdly, her perception. That's the word I was going for. In verse 18 of first King 17, she thought, she thought the hardship had hit her life because of some sin she had committed.
She thought, man, I'm going through a financial hardship because I failed God in some way. Now, sometimes that's true, but God works with his kids like we work with ours. You've never gotten home, looked at one of your kids and said, what have I not done? Discipline you for something? I'm going to do that today. How about I stick you into the room for the rest of the day and just put you in time out. No reason. Just hadn't done it in a while. I'm going to send you back there. You wouldn't do that. You would tie your discipline to some action that you're trying to correct. Well, God doesn't discipline his children without us knowing why it's happening. That's why when somebody says to me, man, this has gone south. I don't know what happened. I don't know if it were the result of something you had done, you would know. You'd know.
I mean, you'd say, this is a cycle. I'm trying to break this cycle. I brought this on myself. And I know this is the consequence of a bad decision. This is a consequence of a poor attitude. But that's not the case. In the story of first king 17. I'm citing because in verse 18, she assumed it was some sin. And Elijah said, no, you got that wrong. That's not it at all. God is trying to do something incredible in your life, and he's trying to bring you to a point of dependency on him. A dependency on him.
I think there's at least three levels that you can live on when it comes to God. You can live on a level of total dependency. That's where she was initially.
Or you can live on a level of independence where you don't rely on God at all.
And I think the healthiest level is not dependence or independence, but interdependence.
That's when I do my part. I put feet to my prayer. I don't just pray and say, okay, God, if your ship's not coming in, it might be you didn't send any out.
The Bible says, cast your bread on the waters, and after many days, it will return. You got to put the bread out there. You got to cast your bread out. You got to make the investment. And then there's an expectation of a return. So it's an interdependence, I think, is where we want to be. And that's ultimately when Elijah leaves her home, man. That's ultimately where they were. There was an interdependence. But what is my point? My point is, he demonstrated incredible insight. Second principle, not only insight. There has to be oversight. Oversight. Someone has said in management, people won't always do what you expect as much as they will do what you inspect. Now, that doesn't mean you need to micromanage every detail of someone's life, but it means if you're accountable for the people under you, you need to know what they're doing and how they're doing it and make sure they're maintaining the level of excellence and the expectation that you have. So there is an expectation, but it also involves inspecting what you expect.
And so he did this. Well, when you read Genesis 40 713 down through verse 20, he was a man that did this. Well, remember in a moment ago, I read about the ants. And I use that as an illustration where he said, go study ants. Let me give you three quick thoughts about ants that really deal with oversight. Number one. Ants. Ants know how to cooperate. They know how to cooperate. They work as a team. It's amazing. Ants know how to cooperate. If one of them is carrying something heavy, another little ant will come right alongside of them and help carry their load. It's an amazing principle. It's what God says we're to do for one another. In romans 14 seven, we're to help bear each other's burdens. So ants look at their fellow teammate and they say, I see a teammate struggling. Can I help you with something today? I've kind of got what I needed to do done. How could I lift your burden? How could I help you? Maybe it's not something physically. Maybe it's just emotionally. You just see they're a little bit down. How could I come alongside someone I'm working with and help make their load lighter? Ants cooperate. Another thing about ants, ants will also communicate. If one of those little boogers find food at your picnic, have you noticed how many of them show up?
Good night. They've got a system of communication that's astounding, by the way, there's over 12,000 species of ant. Yeah, I did some reading on it. I'm sorry. I had a little downtime.
I know a lot about things that aren't really important, but this is something the Bible said, study the ants. So I did.
They communicate. You know what else they communicate? They will find the best way back to the colony, and they share that.
If you put an obstacle in front of those little boogers, they're trying to get back to the colony. They'll find a way around it, over it, under it, through it. They're going to get by it because they know how to cooperate. It's great principles that you learn from the ant. They communicate. They cooperate. Thirdly, they congregate. Ants know how to do that well, they live in colonies, and in the colonies, they learn how to live in unity.
Look, the Bible doesn't stress in Ephesians the uniformity of the spirit. You know what it stresses? Unity of the spirit. What is uniformity? Uniformity is what you have in the military. You're going to wear the uniform of the day. You're going to get up when they tell you to do. You're going to do what they tell you to do. You're going to eat what they tell you to eat. Now, that's necessary for discipline. And I get it. And those of you that have served our country, God bless you for your service. We salute you. Our church loves our vets and those currently serving. But I would also say uniformity is essential. But that's not the element he talks about in the church. He talks about unity. Unity in the midst of diversity, meaning that you come from different backgrounds, you come from different places. Some of you have experienced different cultures. We have a family from Iran I met this morning that have just immigrated to our country and have found our church and love it. They come from a different culture, from a different place, and yet they're learning how to congregate with a sense of unity. Unity of purpose. Here's what we're about bringing people. We're about sharing Jesus with everyone. What are we about? We're about helping people who are hurting. That's why we have a CRC. That's what. That's our priority. That's what we're all about. And so we come to where people are because we know they're not. Until they get reachable, we're not going to reach them, but they get reachable when they go through a hard time. So we learn that. So we communicate, we cooperate, we congregate. So that's the second principle. Oversight. Here's the third one, and I'm going fast now, hindsight. Hindsight. Genesis 40, 713 through 20. What do I mean by that? Joseph never forgot where he came from, and he never forgot the people who helped him along the way.
Have you ever heard that expression, be careful as you climb the ladder of success, the people that you may step on or step over, you have to be careful because you may need them on the way down.
By the way, concerning the ladder of success, did you know the higher up that ladder you go, the more people can see your backside?
And we all have one meaning. You're going to see your weaknesses, they're going to see your flaws, they're going to see your imperfections. And so I'm just suggesting to your heart and mind this morning that he never forgot that Joseph didn't forget those. Listen, he wasn't bitter about his past, because you see that beautifully illustrated in Genesis 50 when he reunites with his brothers. And he had the power to just judge them for how they tried to kill him, but instead, he forgave them, and he showed incredible mercy on them. In fact, he concluded in Genesis 50, the thing you thought against me, you thought evil, but God used it for good.
Listen, Joseph had an attitude that everything God did in my life, everything he caused or permitted, he allowed it so that I would be the man that I am today. You could be the woman you are today. It's not your success that speaks as much about you as your failures.
You'll learn more through what you fail. I can tell you a thousand things you can do in a church that will not work.
And God bless those of you who've stayed with me through all the changes.
I heard John Maxwell say one time, and it really stuck in my head.
By the way, you know the origin of an original thought? The first time you use something, you source the person who said it. I just said, john Maxwell. Next time you hear me say that, I'll say, someone said, and the next time you hear me say it, I'll say, I've always said so anyway.
That's the origin of original thought right there. Solomon said, there's no new thing under the sun, meaning that we all borrow from each other. But what he said was, people are more likely to forgive your failures. Now, here it is. If they're forward, if you fail forward, you're trying.
And I can honestly say, in looking back at those thousand things, and I don't know if they're a thousand or not, I've told you a million times, I don't exaggerate. So there's that.
But I'm just suggesting you that as long as you're trying and attempting, even in business, people are much more forgiving of someone who tried something that didn't work than someone who just let it all come at them, and they just lived according to fatalism.
So he never forgot where he came from. He allowed the experiences of life not to make him bitter, but to make him better, to make him the man that he was. And you see that in Joseph's life. Here's the last thought I said. He had insight. He had oversight. He had hindsight. Here it is. He had foresight. He had foresight. He looked to the future. In Genesis 47 21 through 26, he responded to the pressure that was on him with innovation and creativity.
Do you know, sometimes God may be allowing you to have pressure because there's an idea out there that if you were in the comfortable place in your life, you would never explore it. So he's created discomfort so that you could find an innovative way to do what he's called you to do. How many incredible inventions have come about of necessity? What is it? Necessity is the mother of invention, right? When you think about the people that have done incredible things in life, a lot of those experiences have come out of the hardship.
Joseph didn't know the leader he was. He was always that leader. But God had to put him through what he went through so he could pull the leader that he was out of him. Moses is another example. Did you know the name Moses means drawn out? Drawn out. We think about him in the little basket in the Nile, how Pharaoh's wife drew him out of the water. But you know what God was doing? He was drawing out of Moses a leader. You know what he's doing in your life? He's drawing a leader out of you. You're a learner. Leaders have influence. You're an influencer. God has got you strategically in a place to work with people that will never hear my voice. As we said this morning and Jim talked about it in the men's breakfast, your life may be the only bible someone ever reads. So you are strategically placed on this life to do good things and do good works. And sometimes God will use the pressure you're under to help you bring out your creativity and your innovation.
Someone has said to get something from God you've never had before, you have to be willing to go somewhere with God you've never been before.
You got to get out of that comfort zone. Let me close with three illustrations of this. Marconi told his friends that he had discovered a way to send messages through the air without wires or any other physical means, and they promptly had him taken into custody and placed in a psychiatric ward.
Samuel Morse appeared before the 27th Congress and asked for $30,000 to implement an experimental telegraph wire between Washington, DC, and Baltimore, and he was laughed to scorn the third illustration. 1926. A young salesman called on the Hookless fastener company in Meadville, Pennsylvania. They asked this young man how the company could increase sales. He said, how about putting zippers on the front of men's pants to replace buttons? And everyone in the room broke out into laughter.
They said no self respecting man would ever wear pants that zipped in the front.
What's my point? My point is this innovation, this creativity, came out of people who refused to quit.
Just don't give up. Don't give out. Don't give in. Living is what you're alive to do. As long as there's breath in your body, as long as God has a purpose for you, don't settle for second best. Manage your time. It's the most valuable resource you have. Manage your resources because they are limited. Prioritize. Live intentional. Live purposeful. You say, bill, I don't know what God wants me to do well. Start doing something. God uses busy people. Just start somewhere. Start doing something.
Honestly, if you'll just put your hands to the plow and do the things that you know to do today, God will begin to reveal things to you in that activity that you weren't aware of. Start somewhere. Start small, start strategic. But start moving in that direction and you'll begin to see that God will take your desire and he'll begin to align it with your design. And ultimately you discover your destiny. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the opportunity we have to be here this morning.
Father, first of all, we kicked it off with a wonderful men's breakfast. And thank you for Jim, for sharing some pages out of his life and for really encouraging all of the fellows that were there. And thank you for that. Just that room full of men. Thank you for this first service where we have worshiped. We have received communion, and we've sat and reflected on what your word teaches, these principles. And now, Father, before we leave this place, I just pray over everyone here this morning and those watching online.
I pray for all of our business people, that you'll bless them, bless their companies, bless their careers.
Father, I pray you'll bring incredible joy and fulfillment. Let them know that you're into business. And as D. L. Moody said, if God is your partner, make your plans big.
So, Father, I pray for these folks.
I pray for my friends. Finally, Lord, who are here and watching that may never have trusted you as savior and Lord, the most significant decision anyone will ever make is that decision to receive you.
And I pray now in the closing moments of this service, I pray you'll impress upon their hearts the significance of knowing you.
May they right where they are, humble their heart and pray this simple prayer and say, lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. I trust you with all that I am. In Jesus'name I pray. Amen.
[00:38:27] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
