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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. If you enjoyed today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend? We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life. Well, God bless you. It is always a joy to come into your homes. We love you. We know God has great things in store for each one of you.
If you're ever in our area, I hope you'll come out and be a part of one of our services. We give you a personal invitation. I promise you it will make you feel right at home. But thanks again for coming out. Thanks for tuning in. I like to start each week with something kind of funny. And I heard about this elderly couple. They were having a terrible problem with their memory.
They went to the doctor and he instructed them to start writing down everything they'd been forgetting. One night they were watching TV and the wife said, I sure would like a bowl of ice cream. The husband said, I'll go get it for you. She said, honey, you know what the doctor said? You better write it down. He said, I'm just going to the kitchen. I'm not going to forget it.
He came back in a few minutes and handed her a plate of bacon and eggs. She shook her head and said, I knew this was going to happen. You forgot my toast. All right, hold up your Bible. Say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today, I will be taught the word of God. I boldly confess my mind is alert.
My heart is receptive. I will never be the same. In Jesus' name, God bless you. I want to talk to you today about staying open for something new. Successful people know how to change with the times. They don't get stuck in a rut, doing the same thing the same way year after year. They're constantly evaluating where they are and what they're doing, and they make adjustments so they can improve.
And just because something worked five years ago doesn't mean it's still going to work today. We have to stay open for change. We can't get so set in our ways that we won't try anything new. This is why many people don't have any enthusiasm. There's no freshness in their life.
Every time an opportunity comes for change, for promotion, for increase, because they're not used to it, they shrink back. They don't realize that's what's keeping them from going to the next level. And in the coming days, don't be surprised if God brings new opportunities across your path. Some of you are going to be offered a position that you feel is over your head.
Others, you're going to have an opportunity to change careers and get into a different field. Or maybe you single people, God's going to bring somebody new into your life, a divine connection. You'll be tempted at first to play it safe and think about all the reasons why you can't do it. You've been hurt in the past. You can't get into that new relationship.
You're not qualified for that new position. Or Joel, I couldn't try a different field. What if I fail? But if you're going to experience God's best, you got to be willing to take a risk. You can't get stuck thinking that it can only happen one way. God likes to do new things. I read where up until World War II, the Swiss watch company was the largest watchmaker in the world.
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Chapter 2: What does it mean to stay open for something new?
And I want to light a new fire on the inside. Some of you have lost your passion. You've gone through a disappointment. Things didn't work out. And now you're in that rut, just doing the same thing the same way. But this is a new day. God is getting you prepared for the new things He's about to do. When those opportunities come across your path, don't you dare think, I can't do this.
I don't have those skills. This is not what I'm used to. I'm too old. No, shake all of that off and say, I am well-abled. I am equipped. I am anointed. I am empowered. I'm going to step into a new level of my destiny. I saw a documentary on television about this professional thief. This man was incredibly talented. He was one of the most brilliant people I'd ever seen.
Just his strategy and the way he thought and planned out his burglaries was so fascinating. He had burglarized homes for 21 years without getting caught. He never hurt anyone. He'd only do it during the daytime if no one was there. The police were so frustrated. They knew in general where he was going to hit. They had figured out his pattern, but he would always outsmart them.
They brought in federal agents and some of the most brilliant detectives around, but still year after year, he continued to elude them. Well, there was a fluke incident and he got caught after 21 years. They were interviewing him on this documentary. He looked like a typical middle-class businessman. He did not look like a thief.
And the man asked him, why did you choose with all this skill, all this expertise, why did you choose a life of crime? I'll never forget the way he answered. He said, this is all that I know how to do. He told how he was raised in a dysfunctional family, didn't have anyone really giving him guidance. And as I watched, I thought to myself, how limited we become in our thinking.
We get so one-dimensional. I wanted to say to him, if you could successfully steal for 21 years, outsmarting some of the brightest minds around, don't you think you could run your own business? Don't you think you could do something equally as successful being productive with your life? I had a young man tell me one time after the service how all he knew how to do was sell drugs.
He came from a very rough neighborhood. He said, Joel, I don't like what I do, but I don't have any other skills. I've never been to college and this is the only way I know how to make a living. I said, listen, if you can sell drugs, don't sell yourself short. You're a lot smarter than you think. That's not the only thing you can do. Think about it like this.
If you can sell drugs, you have to know how to market your product. That's marketing. You have to know how to get the word out. That's advertising. You have to take care of your clients. That's customer service.
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Chapter 3: How can we overcome the fear of change and embrace new opportunities?
You have to know when to sell and when not to sell. That's a management decision. Don't fool yourself. If you can sell drugs, you can sell medical equipment. You can sell electronics. You can sell stocks and bonds. You need to reinvent yourself. Get a new vision for your life. Maybe nobody's ever spoken faith into you. But let me tell you, you have a gift. You have something to offer.
Don't use your God-given talents for the wrong purposes. If you'll put yourself in the right environment and not get stuck with this mindset, this is all that I know how to do for the rest of my life, then you'll see God begin to open up new doors. It's not too late to start right where you are. You're not too old. You haven't made too many mistakes.
You wouldn't be here if God didn't have more for you to accomplish. Keep looking for new opportunities. Be willing to get out of your comfort zone. And some of you today, you just need some freshness in your life. Start stretching yourself. You have to stir up what God's put on the inside. If you don't have a dream, you're not really living. You're just existing.
You have to have a reason to get out of bed each morning. Something that motivates you. Something that you're passionate about. Maybe at one time you had a dream, but you went through some disappointments. Things didn't work out. But here's the key. When one dream dies, dream another dream. Just because it didn't work out the way you had it planned doesn't mean God doesn't have another plan.
You cannot allow one disappointment or even a series of disappointments to convince you that it's not going to happen. You may have tried and failed, but understand a failure is not a denial. It's just a delay. These thoughts will come saying, it's over. You're too old. You blew it. You had your chance. All these thoughts will try to convince us to give up on what God has placed in our hearts.
You got to dig your heels in and say, thanks, but no thanks. It may not have worked out my way, but I know God has another way. And I'm not going to sit around and live my life defeated. I'm going to rise up and dream a new dream. This is what Joshua had to do. He stayed open to things happening a different way. After Moses died, he was chosen to lead the people of Israel.
They were headed toward the promised land. They came to the Jordan River. They needed to get across, but there was no bridge. Joshua remembered how his predecessor, Moses, had held up his rod and parted the Red Sea. I'm sure he thought God would tell him to do it the same way. I can even imagine he goes on top of the hill, holds up his rod and says, God, please part this river.
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Chapter 4: What lessons can we learn from the Swiss watch industry's failure to adapt?
He's praying, he's hoping, he's believing. This is the first real test of his leadership. Everyone is watching closely, thinking let's see if he has what Moses had. Let's see what Joshua is made of. He holds up the rod, but wouldn't you know it, nothing happened. The waters didn't budge. He could have easily thought, I must not be the right one. It worked for Moses, but it didn't work for me.
No, Joshua understood this principle. He stayed open for something new. God told him to tell the priests to march toward the waters, and the moment their feet touched the waters, it would begin to part. The priests started walking toward the water. The closer they got, the more people tried to talk them out of it. You better not keep going. Better not listen to Joshua.
You're going to get out there and drown. Didn't faze them. They just kept walking, doing what God said. And sure enough, as soon as their feet touched the water, it began to pull back. And just like they did for Moses, the people were able to go through on dry ground. What am I saying? God chose to do it a different way than he did with Moses.
Had Joshua been set in his ways, closed-minded, he would have missed out on God's best. But Joshua's attitude was, if it didn't work one way, I'm not going to get defeated and give up. I know God has another way, so I'm going to keep trying. I'm going to keep believing. I'm going to keep pressing forward until I find that right way.
Could it be that we've been too set in our ways and we've given up after the first time or the second time or the fifth time and we've missed out on seeing our water's part? I've found you have to get to your closed doors before you'll ever come to your open doors. Don't get discouraged and give up and settle just because it didn't happen one way.
Keep knocking, keep believing, keep hoping, keep dreaming. You may have to have 10 people tell you no before you come to that one yes, but that one yes will make up for all the other no's. You may have a dozen things that you try that don't work out, but if you'll stay in faith, you'll come to that one thing that does work out. It's like this little boy I heard about.
He was five or six years old and he had a baseball and a bat. He looked at that bat and he said to himself, I am the best hitter in all the world. He threw the ball up, took a swing and missed. He picked the ball up and said it more determined. I am the best hitter in all the world. He threw it up, swung, strike two, missed again. He picked the ball up. This time he straightened his hat.
He said it with even more intensity. I am the best hitter in all the world. He threw the ball up, concentrated the best he could, took a swing and he missed, strike three. He simply laid his back down, picked the ball up and said, what do you know? I am the best pitcher in all the world. If we're going to be successful, we've got to stay open to new ideas. Be willing to reinvent yourself.
The scripture says God's ways are not our ways. They are higher and better than our ways. That tells me God's dream for your life is so much bigger, so much greater than your own. When a door closes, something doesn't work out, don't sit around in self-pity thinking, poor old me. No, we may have a reason to feel sorry for ourselves, but we don't have a right. God is still on the throne.
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