Spring Broke - Week 1

Eight men, Amen and Amen. Go to Ephesians chapter five. We're starting

to brand new series this morning. You A lot of people just got back

from spring break or are still on spring break. So we thought that we

would honor this moment in time by preaching you a series called Spring Broke,

and it has nothing to listen. I'm not gonna do four more weeks on

finances, so don't worry. That's not what we're that's not what we're doing.

But you know, I think a lot of times when we are going

through hard times in our lives, when we are in the midst of our

brokenness, in the midst of our dysfunction, we wake up one day and

we feel the weight of that and it feels like an immediate thing. But

the real but the reality is that our brokenness doesn't just happen all at once.

It is a slow fade into our dysfunction and our brokenness. Now I'm

not talking about catastrophe. I'm not talking about catastrophic loss. I'm talking about

those things that the enemy uses and holds us and we wake up and we

experience this sudden pain and we feel far from God. But normally that doesn't

happen in a moment, Come on, somebody. It's a it's a slow

fade where we slowly make decisions or we put off things and we end up

in a broken place. And today I want to begin to set the stage

for the rest of this series. My intention today is to teach, not

do much preaching, but just teach and lay the foundation, because I believe

that if we can start building upon a good foundation, that everything else we

do from here will carry us to a new place, and that we can

avoid some of that brokenness and we can set ourselves up for experience. Because

just like brokenness is a steady pace, or brokenness is over a series of

time, so is success. It's built over a series of time. Man,

as we look at that, I want to lay this foundation today.

So if you hear something good, say amen. But I'm not really here

to get an emotional response from You had much rather you rite than shout today,

Come on somebody, Okay, Now that was your one time. You

didn't need to write that down. Amen. So so Ephesians chapter five,

starting in verse fifteen, You're gonna hear this several times over this series.

See then that you walk circumspectully, not as fools, but as wise redeeming

the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise,

but understand what the will of the Lord is. Let's pray. Father,

We thank you for your word and the Lord. Our desire today is to

be changed, to be shaped, moldly conformed into your image. That are

our minds would be transformed to experience you, to receive you, to see

you and our destiny in a different way. Lord. I pray that right

now that the seeds of life are planted at the fabric of our being,

and they bring a harvest the likes of which the world is never seen in

Jesus' name, Amen, Amen, and Amen. In Ephesians chapter five,

here the Bible tells us not to not to walk as fools, but as

wise to redeem the time because the days are wicked. Now, I want

to just I want to break some news to you in case you didn't know.

The days are indeed wicked. If that surprises you, get out from

under your rock. Come on, somebody. It was true when this was

written, and it is still true today, that the natural slant of the

human heart is towards deprivity, not towards righteousness. The startling fact about where

we live right here in America is that we are now the second largest mission

field in the entire world. Let me say that again. America is the

second largest mission field in the entire world, behind only India. India is

the only place where there are more unsaved people than America. When we look

back, in our great grandparents' generation, as much as sixty to seventy percent

of our country claimed to be Christians. That number has drastically slid and reduced

itself to now under twenty percent of our population claims to be born again evangelical

believers. That is a terrible slide. The biggest reason is because the days

are evil, and the Bible says that if we're not careful, that if

we just continue doing the same things we've always done, we're going to get

the same things we've always gotten. It's the definition of insanity doing the same

thing over and over again expecting a different outcome. Right, But yet most

of us wake up every day and we continue to do the same things that

guide us right where we are right now. And most of us look around

and there's some areas in our life that we wish they weren't that way,

we know the struggles we have, whether we admit those struggles or not.

We know the areas that we want to be more successful, but we haven't

really taken the time to examine and put the things in place to get us

to that next level. And this series is all about today. The reality

is the most important moment in your life is this one. Let me say

that again, the most important moment in your life is this one, because

this moment is the only moment that we can actually do something now. This

is it. This morning, as we got ready and we did our breakdown

with the team this morning, I looked at him and I said, listen,

today is the only day we have to make a difference in people's lives.

Today's it because it's the only day we have. Last week, a

lot of people were touched on Easter, but that was an old season and

this is this season, and next Sunday will be a new season. Today's

the only day we have to maximize the impact and the reach that we have.

And God has given us a special anointing for this moment in time,

and the Bible teaches that foolishness will derail everything now and in the future.

In Proverbs chapter fourteen, verse sixteen. It says a wise man fears and

departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self confident. Let's read

another one, Proverbs twelve, verse fifteen. The way of a fool is

right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise. Our

foolish hearts will always make us think that we are right in every situation.

After all, I just want to show hands, how many of you have

ever you just woke up one day and said, bless God, today,

I'm gonna be wrong. Goal for today is to be as wrong as I

can possibly be. I want to look like an imbecile in front of everybody

that I come in contact with. Now, we don't wake up that way,

but the reality is a lot of us live our lives that way because

we think that we are always right, that we are as we talk about

a lot here, that we're the most important character in the story, and

we live as if we shape culture and we shape our future. But we

know that that's not the case. Jesus in us gives us the ability to

shape those things, and we make determinations in the moment that affect our tomorrows.

Echoing even past our own lives and our own generations. We make decis

visions to squander things. Now we make decisions to to make Listen, I

just want to I just want to tell you something that I promise this is

not going to be another series about finance. But we make investments now,

and you're like, I don't invest in anything right, right? You make

investment in nothing now that will reap dividends or lack of dividends then. And

there's many different ways we invest There's many different things we do now that echo

into tomorrow. Those those conversations you have with your children that shape character and

builds fortitude. You know, I used to get a bad, bad rap

at my house because I never let my kids win at anything. Never Madison

was four years old. She want to play basketball. I blocked every shot

everyone. We played Checkers, I won, We play Candyland, I won.

I did not let them win at anything because I want I wanted them

to grow up knowing not that somebody is going to make things easy on you,

but that life is hard and there's winners and there's losers. And they

learned that from a very early age. I won't ever forget the very first

time. Madison was pretty good golfer. I won't ever forget the very first

time we went out on the golf course and she was starting to get good.

I knew she was getting good. I was always I always found a

way to beat her every time we played. And we were playing over at

Chickapea Woods, just playing a quick nine holes of golf, and we got

to the last hole and I looked at the scorecard and I figured everything up

really fast, and I realized she had a putt to beat me for the

very first time in her entire life. And I started talking to her and

I said, baby, you know, make sure you read this putt right,

because this is what I told my child. It may break different today

than it did yesterday. The ground is slowed the exact same way every day.

I said, make sure you might want to back up and look at

that putt again, because and you know, you've missed this putt time and

time again. And I just kept talking and kept talking. She would start

to address ball and I said, hey, now have you and listen.

It probably took three minutes for her to actually take the putt because I kept

distracting her because I didn't want to lose. She took the putter back and

in her back, in her backs wing, she said, you know this

means I win, and drained it right in the middle of the cup.

And it was one of the proudest moments she's experienced because she beat me fair

and square that day, and she learned that I can overcome and I can

learn to do anything. Those are investments for the future, Come on,

somebody, But most of us ignore those moments, whether it be pouring into

our children or whether it be preparing for our own tomorrows, and we decide

to make poor choices based on the fact that we think we're the right one

and someone else is wrong. I want you to realize that we do live

in a world where two things can be true at the same time. That

you can be in an argument with your spouse and you can both be right

about the issue, and the important thing is not who's right. The important

thing is does it set us up for the best possible outcome over a series

of tomorrows, or does it set us up and lead us down a path

towards brokenness. Because that fight that you think is so important right now,

the need to win that argument right now can set your relationship up for brokenness

for years to come, just because you needed to win right now, not

realizing that it's not a about you, and you're not always right and you

don't need to be right. You need to understand that to now to now,

I know I said it that now, go say today, changed it

to now? That now is an investment in the future. Let's keep reading

out. There's a lot of wisdom and proverbs. Solomon known as the wisest

man in the world, and he he gave us his wisdom. And we

don't want we don't like his wisdom. A lot of times we don't.

We don't like it. Proverb, Chapter eighteen, verse two. A fool

has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart. But let

me read our let me read our original passage of scripture again. See that

you walk circumspectully, not as fools, but as wise, and the wise

redeem the time because the days are evil. Therefore, don't be unwise,

but understand what the will of the Lord is says Listen. The foolish has

no delight in understanding, has no delight in taking just taking a breath,

just taking a moment and getting a little understanding about what this decision, what

this moment means forever. I keep getting this same clip on social media and

it's this little girl and she's on this British game show and the game show

hosts told her. She's probably four or five years old, and he's talking

to her and he says, Okay, you can either have an all expense

paid vacation for you and your entire family to Dubai. You're gonna go to

the beach. It's a it's it's an oasis. It's a beautiful place and

all of your food's paid for. You're gonna carry your family and you can

have that. Or you can have this stuffed giraffe for your room. And

the parents are you know, you can see them all spreaing. They're like,

now this work, this this this this prize package, this vacation is

valued and it's like thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. Or you can

have the giraffe for your room. Which which one do you want? And

without ever cutting an eye her mama and daddy, she said, I'll take

the giraffe. Do you know how many times as believers we choose the giraffe.

We ask God for miracles. We asked God to do something we've never

seen before. We asked God to reach down and touch us right in our

infirmity and listen. The giraffe was a blessing to the little girl. She

liked the giraffe, but it wasn't a miracle. And we will settle for

good when there's God, because we don't slow down and gather some information to

allow now this moment, the only moment you have where in just a moment

when your phone buzzes and it's a Facebook notification and you feel compelled to either

read Facebook or continue to stay tuned in to God's word. I'm waiting to

see if I can hear the buzz because it's coming that in that moment,

which do we choose. Jeremy's looking at Facebook right now on the front row.

A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart.

You know, I know that it's uncomfortable a lot of times, and

I try to teach our team this is that when you start talking, we

start listening, that the most important thing is under standing the totality of what's

being said before we give advice. As a matter of fact, I don't

even like to give you advice. If I don't have something straight from the

word of God, I feel a little uneasy sometimes. And listen, there's

a lot of things that are tasked on a pastor. I mean, you

know, over the course of a week, I might be asked anything from

retirement planning to buying a new car. I mean fashion advice, because I

mean, after all, I mean, you know those but all of those

things come and I'm not qualified for most of those things. And I try

to tell you, listen, the only thing I know about a car,

you put it in d and point it in the right direction. That's it.

I certainly don't know where the car wash is. Right. If you

need to know about a car, ask Bobby Taw. Bobby knows about cars.

He will have you a car this afternoon, and the price range you

need it. You asked me about marriage and how to overcome adversity in marriage,

And listen, I have the greatest wife in the world. I do,

and we have experienced very little adversity because she is so incredible. She

just understands I'm me and I'm gonna keep being me and learns to bend her

life around all of the uniqueness. That's me. I don't know if I

can give you that advice, but let me just show you something. Raise

your hand. If you've been married for twenty or more years, keep them

up. If you've been married for thirty or more, forty or more,

all right, if you're newly married, if you're brand new married, troubles

are coming. I just need transparency, right, Oh, don't put your

hands back up. Forty or more, put your hands up. Let me

just say fifty or more, the forties. Put your hands back up to

I don't want to load everybody down. Okay, forty or more. Look

around these hands that are up in the air. Put your hands back up.

Look around. These are the people that know how to make it.

These are the people that know how to get through whatever's coming after you.

These men are the ones that can give you advice about what you should just

tell your wife the way it is or not. They're the ones. Listen,

there's wisdom in those years of experience. So before you shoot off your

mouth, get some wisdom before you wreck tomorrow with what you say today and

all the tomorrow's after that. Get some wisdom. Raise your hand. If

you own a business, you're on your own. Keep your hands up.

Keep your hands up. If you're thinking about starting a business, look around.

These are the people that you go talk to. Don't just run out

there and do it on your own. Get some wisdom, you know,

a great way to find you can put your hands down. Some of y'all

really proud of your businesses. That makes me excited. Carlo is gonna let

her arm fall off before she was already leaning over sideways. I'm a business

owner because you know what it's like not to own a business and work for

somebody else for so long. See, there's people that have always owned their

own business, or people that used to work for somebody else and now they

have their own business. There's people that do both. Get wisdom. We

have to understand that godly counsel is the best source of wisdom. That surrounding

yourself with people who care about you and value your destiny is more important than

a spur of the moment decision. So let me tout one of my favorite

things again. Groups. Get involved in a group because there are people in

groups, and people have been through stuff, much of the same stuff that

you're going through. And some of them didn't catch it early and had to

live in the fullness of the consequences, and they know how to get through

it. Some of them caught it about halfway down, and they realized that

they were going down a bad path, and they can show you how to

turn around from wherever you are. And some of them never got there because

they made wise choices in the moment to not do those things, And they

can keep you from going down the same path. Now is the only time

we have take full advantage of the now by leveraging the incredible wisdom and people

in this room that God has spoken to and breathed into and placed around you

for such a time as this. In Proverbs chapter fourteen, verse twenty nine,

it says, he who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but

he who is impulsive exalts folly. Proverbs four verse five, Get wisdom,

get understanding, Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.

Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you her as wisdom.

Love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing.

Therefore, get wisdom, and in all you're getting, get understanding. In

all of your accumulation of stuff. Get understanding. Understand that if my goal

in life is to retire early, I'm not going to live in the nicest

house and drive the nicest cars. To me, that's easy to figure out.

I'm not going to travel around the world. If my goal is to

retire early, my goal is to have rich kids and just live at their

house. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. My kids think of about

money the same way I do. They don't really think a whole lot of

it. It's just whatever my investments in other things and other experiences and other

culture building opportunities. And that means if I have to live in the woods

when I'm seventy, that's what I actually really want to do. Ang,

you don't, but I do. I'll bid you a nice fire and a

tip. Baby. But in all of your getting get understanding, don't you

us go through life wasting moment after moment, never learning anything from right now.

I try to live in such a way that I live that that that

I learned something from right now all the time. In James, chapter one,

verse five says, if any of you lacks with Okay, Clay,

you guys can come on and get ready. I want to ask a question

and I want just really lets bear down on transparency. Okay, the number

one core value at Cornerstone Tabernacle is transparency. I'm me up here just like

I'm me anywhere else, and we want you to be you all the time

too. So here's we're reading this scripture out of the Book of James says

if anyone lacks and then we're going to go on to the next part of

it. But I want to show of hands. If you're in this room

and you know you lack wisdom in some areas of life. Wow, Wow,

that's hard to believe that we don't have one person that's got it all

figured out. It's actually not that hard to believe, because none of us

do. But there's something else. I will guarantee you that where Dean lacks

wisdom, there's somebody else here that has it in that area. And there's

a source of wisdom that supersedes any individual. If any of you lacks wisdom,

let him ask of God, who gives to all life, giverally and

without reproach, and it will be given to him. That literally, ask

God for the wisdom in this moment. How do I position myself, what

do I do? How do I respond? What's my next step? Because

right now is all you've got. Now you're leaning back on some knowledge,

some things you've learned. Wisdom is the application of that knowledge. God can

show you how to apply the things you've learned and make it active. If

any of you lacks wisdom, just let him ask God. I want to

close with this one Proverbs chapter nine, verse ten. The fear of the

Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Let me say that the fear of the

Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is

understanding. Let's go back to our very first passage. See then that you

walk circumspectully, not as fools, but as wise redeeming the time because the

days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise, but under stand what

the will of the Lord is. Wisdom is the principal thing, the fear

of the Lord, where our heart is set in that constant, overwhelming realization

that He is my everything, that reverent acknowledgement that I can't do anything apart

from Him. That's where wisdom begins, and the knowledge of the Holy One,

the will of God in my life it's understanding that literally leveraging this moment

for all that it's worth, pointed towards our destiny, God's plan for our

life, his will for our life. It's the key to success and everything

that we do and the repulsion of brokenness, hurt, and dysfunction. Let's

live our lives in such a way that we maximize the lessons we learn from

the moments that we have so that we can be the people God created us

to be. Everybody's staying with me all over the building. You know,

wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. And if you're here today and

you're far from God, let me answer this question that somebody asked me not

long ago. He said, listen, you say if you're far from God?

They said, I don't know how to measure that distance. If you're

far from God, that means that you don't have very many thoughts of Him,

that he's not the go to for every single thing that happens in your

life. We may be far from Him now, I'm not talking about it.

He's all you think about. Brush my teeth this morning. I don't

remember thinking about Jesus while I was brushing my teeth. I wasn't far from

him, but the thought of him wasn't far from me. If you just

simply don't have what you would consider a thriving relationship, you're far from him.

And wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. So if you're here

today and you're far from him, you've never asked him to forgive you of

your sins or you need to. This moment is yours to maximize, just

a moment. I'm going to count to three. If you're here and you

would say, hey, you know what, I think. I'm far from

God and I want to make sure that I'm not. Just step out and

make your way to the front. Our alter te already making their way down.

They're gonna meet you right here. It's on the count of three.

It's the band gets ready to worship the Lord. I want you to step

out, and I want you to move one, two, three,