Man, the title of my sermon this morning is adapt and overcome.
Another title for the sermon could be get with the program, all right?
So pick your title, adapt and overcome, or get with the program.
Things change, all right?
In our lives, in this world, things change and we must adapt.
Now obviously the greatest change that we see in the Bible when we're reading the
Bible is the change from Old Testament to New Testament.
I love the way that Jesus says this in Luke chapter 16, you don't have to turn there,
but it says in verse 16, the law and the prophets were until John.
Since that time, the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it.
He's saying, look, you need to get on the new program here.
You need to get with the New Testament.
The law and the prophets were until John.
Since that time, the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it.
Then he follows it up with, and it's easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle
of the law to fail.
So of course, we're not saying that everything changes, but obviously there are things that
need to change.
Life is filled with change.
God's word stays the same.
The law and the prophets aren't going to fail.
One jot or one tittle of them isn't going to fail, but they're going to be fulfilled
in the new covenant.
So he says, that's what we need to press into and get with the program.
We need to be listening to John the Baptist.
We need to be listening to Jesus Christ, be listening to the apostles, and not say,
no, I'm just going to stick with the old preaching, Moses.
No, you need to adapt to what God is doing now.
Hebrews 8 verse 13 said, in that he sayeth a new covenant, he hath made the first old.
Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
The old covenant, the old agreement that God made with man is replaced by the new covenant.
And you can't just be stuck on the old covenant.
You got to get with the program of the new covenant.
Isn't that the problem with the apostles in the early days of Christianity when they
failed to get on the new program of reaching the Gentiles with the gospel.
You know, Jesus Christ gave them a clear instruction to go and teach all nations.
And yet we just see them for years and years stuck in Jerusalem, just stuck on that old
program of saying, hey, we're going to reach the Jews, we're going to reach Israel.
And then God has to go recruit someone else, the apostle Paul, to go out and do
the greatest works amongst the Gentiles.
Now eventually we know that the apostles did get on the program and guys like Peter
and John did go out and do missions and preach the gospel to other nations.
But it took them a while to get on that program.
You know why?
Most human beings have a nature of wanting to just be stuck on a certain thing.
We don't want to change.
We don't want to adapt.
We don't want to grow.
Sometimes we're just looking for the path of least resistance.
Most people's goal in life is to get to a certain comfortable point in their life
where they get all their ducks in a row and then they want to spend the rest of
their life just coasting.
This is how people think, am I right?
They think to themselves, you know, somebody just said to me yesterday, you know, if
I were to receive millions and billions of dollars, you know, there's always so much
you can spend.
So I would set aside just enough money to make sure I could just live the entire rest
of my life on that money and then I'd give the rest away.
Here's the thing about that though.
You know, we don't need to have all the money laid up to live the entire rest of
our life on, do we?
But that's how people think, right?
It's like we want to just be comfortable.
We want to relax.
We want to coast.
We want to get in a routine and just stick with that routine.
But this is not the way the world works.
This is not God's plan for our lives.
And even if it, you know, even if it were God's plan, it wouldn't work in the
real world, folks, because even if God said, hey, yeah, get comfortable, well, good
luck getting comfortable in this world that he has created that's constantly changing.
Okay.
Now, look if you would at Acts chapter 19.
And the reason I thought about this story, I'm going to go to some other scriptures,
but the reason I thought about this story is I was thinking about how people are resistant
to change.
Okay.
And they want to just get stuck on a certain program at all costs.
And I was thinking about the company Uber, okay, that has pretty much replaced taxi
cabs.
Okay.
Now I remember, you know, when I was a business traveler and I was traveling all
the time, I never used taxi cabs.
I hated using taxi cabs because it was just always a bad experience.
It was expensive.
The drivers were rude.
I just didn't like anything about it.
And so I think, you know, in a decade of doing a ton of business travel, I think
I used a taxi cab like less than five times or something because it was just inconvenient.
It was a hassle.
I didn't like it.
Right.
Then Uber came along.
I use Uber like every week.
Okay.
I love Uber.
It's cheap.
It's convenient.
It's easy.
It works.
The drivers treat you well because they want to get the five stars and everything like
that.
But did you know there are places where Uber is illegal?
You know, especially in Germany.
There are places all over Germany where Uber is illegal because this is what they
said.
You're going to put the cab drivers out of business.
You know, because you're providing a better product at a better price.
How dare you?
We want to continue our gig.
And this is human nature, right?
They want to just continue their gig.
And you know, when machines first started being invented, there were huge riots and
outcries of people who made things by hand saying, you're going to put us out of business.
You know, because there's no longer much of a market for somebody who makes shoes
by hand anymore.
I mean, what if your job is to repair shoes, to repair shoes, to mend shoes?
How much business you think you're going to get in 2019 with a shoe repair business?
Now, I'm sure that there is a guy in Phoenix who repairs shoes, but it's probably like
one guy for 4 million people.
You know what I mean?
Like, that's a certain niche market where one guy repairs your shoes.
But you know what most people do in 2019?
They get a new pair of shoes.
Why?
Because times have changed, things have gotten cheaper, it just doesn't make any sense
anymore to make shoes by hand or to repair shoes.
Some people are getting uncomfortable with this, but here's the thing.
Which is inevitable, and people, they get their job a certain way, they get their life
a certain way, and they just want to protect it at all costs, even if it means inconveniencing
everybody else, slowing down progress for everybody else, because they want their
gig to continue.
And look, everything in this world changes, okay?
If you're in the business of making cassette tapes and records, you know, you're probably
not going to be as successful in 2019 as you were in the 80s, okay?
Or if you're really into, you know, producing neon lights, hey, that was a really big thing
in the 50s.
Neon lights aren't really a thing anymore, right?
It's all going to LED and everything.
That's the way every trade is.
That's the way every industry is.
Some people adapt and grow and learn new things, and other people are just stuck and
want to cry and throw a fit because they're unwilling to move forward and change and
grow, okay?
Now look, if you would, at this story in Acts 19.
This is the parallel that I found for the cab drivers that are mad about Uber because
they don't want to change, okay?
Here are some tradesmen who don't want to change.
They've got their sweet little business gig, and they don't want to adapt.
Look at verse 21 of chapter 19.
After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through
Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem saying, after I've been there, I must also
see Rome.
So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus,
but he himself stayed in Asia for a season.
And the same time, there arose no small stir about that way.
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought
no small gain unto the craftsmen, whom he called together with the workmen of like
occupation.
So here's your labor union, right, getting together, and they're all assembling together
all the silversmith, united brotherhood of silversmiths, okay, international brotherhood
of silver workers, whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation and
said, sir, she knew by this craft we have our wealth.
Moreover, you see and hear that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia,
this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods which
are made with hands.
So that not only this art craft is in danger to be said it not, but also the temple
of the great goddess Diana should be despised.
You know, this is, you know, we just want Diana to get the honor she deserves.
He just finished telling us it's all about him making money several times, right?
Oh, and by the way, you know, I mean, I want to make sure Diana gets her worship.
Her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship it.
And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying
great is Diana of the Ephesians and the whole city was filled with confusion and
having brought Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel,
they rushed with one accord into the theater.
And when Paul would have entered in under the people, the disciples suffered him not.
So they're screaming great is Diana of the Ephesians.
Paul wants to go in and take this as a preaching opportunity.
He's going to go out there and speak, but they're like, no, no, no, don't do that.
So they're not allowing him because they're afraid for him.
Verse 31, certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends sent unto him, desiring him
that he would not adventure himself into the, into the theater.
Some therefore cried one thing and some another for the assembly was confused.
And the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.
And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward and Alexander
beckoned with the hand and would have made his defense under the people.
So instead of Paul speaking, this guy, Alexander is going to speak instead because they're
not allowing Paul because they're afraid for his safety.
But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours,
cried out great is Diana of the Ephesians.
So here these people should have said, you know what?
The apostle Paul is coming in, he's preaching the gospel.
He's getting a ton of people saved.
People are starting to realize that idolatry is stupid.
People are starting to realize that Diana is a fake God and that it's not a real God
that you can make with your hands.
Hey, we need to find something else to do with our lives.
We need to make something else.
You know, we need to start making other things out of silver because this idolatry
trade is failing.
You know, and while they're at it, they should have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ
as their savior and stop making idols and start doing something else.
But they're just, all they care about is just protecting, you know, their job security
and their line of work and everything like this.
And it's just not realistic.
Why not go to second Corinthians chapter four, second Corinthians chapter four, verse
18.
And this is an important principle that you need to learn in your life.
This is something that's so critical.
This verse comes into my mind every week.
It comes into my mind several times a week because this, this verse is so important
to our lives.
It says in verse 18 of chapter four, while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen, and watch this, for the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Here's what you need to understand, my friend.
Everything that you can see with your eyes is temporary, everything.
Anything that is visible, anything that you can see physically with your eyes is temporary.
The Bible says the things that are not seen are eternal.
The things that are seen are temporal.
But isn't it human nature to want to hang on to everything right now in this life and
keep everything the same and clutch hold of things that are just, it's like holding
sand in your hands because every single thing in this world is temporary.
You will eventually lose everything.
I will eventually lose everything.
We will all eventually lose everything.
What does the Bible say?
Naked came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
What does the Bible say in the New Testament?
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing
out.
Everything is temporary.
You have to be ready to adapt and change because life is all about change.
You start out, you're a baby, then you're a toddler, then you're a child, then you're
a teenager, then you're in your 20s, then you're in your 30s.
Look, you cannot stay in your 20s forever, right?
You must adapt.
You must change.
You have to grow.
But a lot of people are stuck on that, aren't they?
There are people that are stuck on being a kid.
You got men that are 22, 25, 27, 28, and you know what?
They still want to be a kid.
You know, I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid.
They don't want to change.
But you know what the Apostle Paul said?
He said, when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought
as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
You cannot stay a teenager forever.
It's time to grow up, it's time to be an adult, it's time to get a job.
Life is not just about fun and games and partying.
No, it's time to get serious about life.
Get a job, live like an adult, act like an adult.
You want to be treated like an adult, you got to start acting like an adult.
But then there are people who want to be in their 20s forever.
You got men in their 50s and 60s dressing like teenagers, dressing like they're in
their 20s and they look like a goofball because you know what they're showing is
that they can't adapt, they can't grow, they can't change.
Look, life is filled with different phases.
You have to take each phase for what it is.
You know, when you're in your 20s, be in your 20s.
But when you become an old man, be an old man.
I'm not saying be decrepit, but I'm saying be an old man.
Okay, you could be an active, healthy, effective old man, but be an old man.
Don't try to be something that you're not.
Don't try to get stuck in life.
And look, I'm telling you, if you spend your life, let's say you have your life
the way you want it right now, just realize it's going to change.
I just have to preserve things just the way they are right now.
You know, I just wish this moment could last forever.
It's not going to.
I wish we could just always feel the way that we feel right now.
You're not going to, okay?
Life isn't like that.
Look, when you first get married, it's just the two of you.
Then you have a child, you have to adapt.
There are some serious adaptations that are going to happen when you have a child.
You think that life is the same before kids and after kids?
Hey, before my wife got pregnant with our first child, she served me pancakes in bed
every morning.
I mean, she was getting up every morning and making pancakes first thing in the morning.
Then she got pregnant and was sick and not able to ... So then she would make
a bunch of pancakes and freeze a bunch of them.
You know what I mean?
And we'd be pulling them out and heating them up.
She had to adapt.
I had to adapt, all right?
The point is, when you have one kid, that's not the same as having two kids.
Then when you have little kids, it's different when you start having teenagers, right?
Then your children leave the home.
Time to adapt.
Time for things to change.
You can't be a person who's just always stuck on one program, on one thing.
You got to be going through life and changing as you go, growing, learning, progressing,
abounding more and more, not just, okay, this is where I want to be.
I'm ready to coast.
How's that going to work at your job?
You think as an electrician, you can just stay with the 1970s style electrical and
you're going to succeed as an electrician in 2019?
You think that a guy who's stuck on the plumbing of the 1980s is going to succeed
as a plumber in 2019?
How about a computer programmer who says, hey, I prefer Windows 3.1.
That's my operating system.
I'm just refusing to update from Windows 95.
That's not going to work in 2019, is it?
It's foolish.
But we see people constantly trying to do this.
If you want to succeed at your job, I don't care what your job is, I don't care if
it's computers, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, you need to stay up on what's current.
You need to stay up on what's current and you need to adapt and grow and learn and not
just say, okay, I'm here, I'm ready to just coast.
You know what a lot of Baptist churches do?
They start out as a soul winning church.
They start out trying to reach people and trying to grow.
Because look, how could a church start as a dead church?
It can't.
Because it would be a non-starter.
Think about if a church just tried to start and they do no soul winning, they're
not trying to reach anybody, they're just kind of like, okay, here we are.
If we build it, they will come.
That's not going to happen, okay?
So the point is, every church starts out being aggressive in some way, trying to do
something, trying to build something, right?
And what happens is you'll get a church that starts out winning souls, they're growing,
and you know what they do?
They get to a certain point, usually about 100 people, they get to about 100 people
and they just start to coast.
Or maybe they get to 200 people and they just start to coast.
And you know what?
The pastor will get the point, he's not learning anything new.
He's not preaching any new sermons.
He's not digging into his Bible trying to find more to preach.
He just is cycling the same sermons.
You know, he's on a five year cycle of just preaching through the same sermons,
the same stuff.
He's not trying to grow, learn, adapt, accomplish anything.
He's just coasting.
You know, is that what we should do at Faithful Word Baptist Church and say, okay, we've
got 370 people here on Sunday morning, time to just put it on cruise control?
You know what would happen if we just started coasting right now?
Oh, we'd be doing great for a while, but this church would just get smaller and smaller
and smaller.
You know why?
Because if you're not growing, you're dying.
If you're not growing, you're shrinking.
If you're not learning, you're getting dumber.
You have to be always moving forward.
Life is like a stream that's flowing against you.
And if you just go limp, you're just going to go backwards.
Backwards in knowledge, backwards in your career, backwards as a church.
You've got to be swimming the whole time, right?
You've got to be pushing and moving forward.
And look, I'm never going to get to the point where I'm just going to say, hey,
our church is big enough, or we're doing enough, you know, we've got a great system.
Let's just let this well-oiled machine, let's just let it run.
Let's just keep it going because it's impossible.
That's a foolish thought to even have because nothing stays the same.
Everything is constantly changing.
You know the old IFB was once cutting edge with their technology?
I mean, think about it.
I mean, look, I mean, Faith Baptist Church in Canoga Park, you know,
Roland Raspus, they were recording sermons in the 1960s on a reel-to-reel.
Because this is before cassette, so, you know, they have a giant reel-to-reel.
They were recording sermons in the 1960s on reel-to-reel and then making a
record out of it.
And then, hey, here's preaching records, you know, before the preaching.
The tapes and the preaching CDs.
I mean, that's pretty cutting edge, right?
And your typical old IFB church in the 80s, you know, they had the state-of-the-art
cassette deck, probably the, what was that better kind of cassette?
The chrome or whatever, what was it?
No one knows.
Remember your Walkman used to have a little switch where he'd switch over to the chrome mode?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
What's it called?
Metal.
Metal?
Yeah, that's what we're for, metal, yeah.
Yeah, it was like you switch over to the different type or whatever for those tapes
that sounded a little better, you know.
Look, in the 80s, man, they were on it with that cassette.
They had the cassettes, they had the duplicator, they had a whole bunch of, they
had a whole room of electronics running that stuff, right?
But what happened now, now that we're in 2019, the typical old IFB church, when
they put their, if they even put their sermon on YouTube or on the internet,
here's what they call it, here's the title of their sermon, here's what they would
title this sermon on YouTube, October 20th, Sunday morning.
Am I right?
They'll upload to YouTube, they'll call it October 20th, Sunday AM, you know, 10
subscribers, 34 views or whatever.
Because at some point, they stopped learning, they stopped, and I'm not saying
all of them, I'm saying in general, they stopped learning, they stopped growing,
they stopped adapting, and they basically just got stuck, and you know what?
Now they're just becoming a thing of the past.
I remember listening to a preacher get up about, say, maybe 10 to 13 years ago,
somewhere in that range of time.
He got up and bragged about how his church had no website, and he was making
fun of churches for having websites.
He's like, yeah, you know, our church runs 800 or whatever, and we don't even
have a website.
You got these little tiny churches, they've all got a website.
It's like, okay, who's laughing now?
Because probably those little churches that have the website are probably outpacing
you now.
Your church is probably shrinking because, you know, if you don't have a
website in 2019, you might as well almost not even exist as far as people
finding your church, because that's how people find everything now.
So, but do you see that attitude?
What do I need a website for?
Okay.
You know, well, guess what?
You're going to be left behind.
You're going to get left in the past.
You're going to get left in the dust.
Okay.
But you know, a lot of these old IFB guys don't even care.
They got a church full of only gray heads.
And you know what?
When those people die, the church dies, and they don't care because they'll be
dead.
So they don't even care what happens to the next generation.
Hey, I'm interested in reaching young people.
I'm interested in reaching the youth.
I'm interested in growing and learning more.
I want to be on the cutting edge.
Okay.
I don't want to just get left behind.
And look, in your job, you got to stay up on it.
In my job, I got to stay up on it as pastor.
I got to be studying my Bible every single week.
Not just, all right, let's dust off all the old sermons from 2006.
Let's get all the sermons from 2007.
Here we go again.
No, I got to keep growing and learning and reading my Bible and preaching fresh sermons,
not just the same old stuff.
Okay.
We need to adapt.
We need to grow.
Go if you would to Genesis chapter 26.
Now, of course, certain things don't change.
God's word doesn't change.
Bible doctrine doesn't change.
There are some constants, thank God.
But you know, all of those constants are things that we can't see, right?
Because remember, everything that's seen is temporal and everything that's not seen is eternal.
So yeah, things like the Lord, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the word of God, right?
These are not physical, carnal things.
These are spiritual, eternal things.
Our souls are eternal.
Okay.
But do we actually see the soul itself?
No.
Our bodies are all temporary.
So trying to hang on to what's here right now is vain because everything will eventually
come to an end.
Everything is born and it lives and it dies.
This is the way of the world.
Okay.
So obviously the Lord says, I'm the Lord.
I change not.
Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
But we in our lives are constantly changing.
Our bodies are changing.
Our lives are changing.
Our age is changing.
Our families are changing.
Our churches are changing.
Everything is going to change.
We must be a person who is ready to adapt.
Okay.
Now look at Genesis chapter 26 verse 12.
Genesis chapter 26 verse 12.
This is a story about Isaac having to re-dig the old wells that his father had dug.
And the Bible says in verse 12, then Isaac sowed in that land and received in the same
year a hundred fold and the Lord blessed him.
And the man waxed great.
And look at this phrase.
Went forward and grew until he became very great.
That's how you grow and that's how you become great.
You go forward.
That's what the Bible is saying here.
Look, he waxed great.
He went forward.
How did he become great?
He grew until he became great.
You've got to be growing.
Isaac was a guy who's ready to move.
He's ready to adapt.
He's ready to grow.
He's ready to alter his business.
He's ready to change and grow and get smarter and learn new things and use new methods.
Okay.
It says in verse 14, for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and great
store of servants and the Philistines envied him.
For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father,
the Philistines had stopped them and filled them with earth.
So here, Isaac inherits some things from Abraham his father.
Abraham had a setup where he's got his herds and flocks and he's got wells that he has
dug and he's already gone through the work to dig these wells.
The wells are already there.
And so Isaac is building on that foundation.
He's got his flocks and herds and he can go to those same watering holes.
He can go to the same pasture and it's already there.
The path has already been laid out.
But then of course, nothing stays the same.
This is what I'm trying to tell you.
Things are not going to stay the same.
Everything's changing.
So of course, he runs into an obstacle.
The Philistines envy him.
They are jealous of his success.
So what do they do?
They go and they stop up his wells just for no reason.
They just vandalize his stuff.
I mean, here he's got this well that he dug.
The well's not hurting them.
But they're just like, I'm sick of seeing Isaac be so successful.
I'm gonna go sabotage Isaac.
I mean, isn't that ridiculous?
But look, this is the way people act, the people who refuse to adapt.
People who refuse to grow and refuse to learn.
They say, oh, well, you know, it's not fair that this other company is doing so well.
Let me sabotage them.
You know, oh, my cab business can't keep up with Uber.
Let me go wine and dine some politician and make it illegal.
Why don't I go bribe somebody to make it illegal?
Hey, look, if you want your taxicab business to be successful,
you're gonna have to be better than Uber.
You're gonna have to provide a better product at a better price.
And if you can't provide a better product at a better price,
don't go get the government to be your big bully,
forcing other people to stop, forcing out the competition
with your dishonest dealings behind closed doors with politicians.
Why don't you just say, hey, I need to find a new line of work
because I can't compete anymore.
But this is how people are.
The Philistines are having trouble competing with Isaac.
So what do they do?
Let's go sabotage Isaac.
Instead of saying, hey, maybe we need a new system,
or maybe we can learn from Isaac and start doing better.
We can take some of Isaac's methods and learn from him
and we can grow our own business.
They say, no, we're gonna sabotage Isaac
so that we can keep the status quo on these fields.
That's what they're doing.
So it says, all the wells which his father's servants
had digged in the days of Abraham,
his father the Philistines had stopped them
and filled them with earth.
And Abimelech said unto Isaac, go from us,
for thou are much mightier than we.
And Isaac departed thence and pitched his tent
in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there.
Do you see how adaptable Isaac is?
They're like, go from us, you're too mighty.
He's just like, okay, okay.
He can adapt.
That's why he's succeeding.
That's why he's growing.
That's why he's waxing great.
Why?
Because he's always willing to move forward.
He says, okay, hey, this isn't working out.
These people don't want me around.
You know what?
I'll just shake off the dust of my feet
and I'm gonna go somewhere else.
And he was adaptable.
And guess what?
When he gets to Gerar,
he's gonna succeed over there as well
because he's gonna succeed everywhere he goes
because he's willing to work.
He's got God blessing him
and he's willing to adapt and move forward.
Okay.
So it says that he went to Gerar.
He dwelt there.
Look at verse 18.
And Isaac digged again the wells of water
which they had digged in the days of Abraham, his father
for the Philistines had stopped them
after the death of Abraham.
And he called their names after the names
by which his father had called them.
And Isaac's servants digged in the valley
and found there a well of springing water.
And the herd men of Gerar did strive
with Isaac's herd men saying, the water's ours.
And he called the name of the well Esek
because they strove with them
and they digged another well
and strove for that also.
And he called the name of it Sitna
and he removed from thence and digged another well.
Look, are you getting a pattern here?
Isaac is always moving forward.
He's look, he'll fight for what's his.
He'll re-dig an old well.
He'll dig a brand new well.
He's willing to move.
He keeps going forward.
He's not stuck.
He's not.
What if he just got stagnant
and just got married to a certain geography.
He's just stuck in a certain geography
and he can't change.
You know, he wouldn't have thrived like
the reason that he's thriving is
because he's actually able to move forward
and not get stuck on one thing.
It says they digged another well,
strove for that also.
He called the name of it Sitna
and he removed from thence and digged another well.
And for that, they strove not.
And he called the name of it Rehoboth.
And he said, for now the Lord has made room for us
and we shall be fruitful in the land.
Okay, so he finds a place where now,
okay, boom, things are thriving.
Things are succeeding.
We're going to be fruitful.
God made room for us.
We found something that works.
We found a system that works.
Let's stay with it, right?
And he went up from thence to Beer Sheba
and the Lord appeared unto him the same night and said,
I'm the God of Abraham, my father.
Fear not, for I'm with thee and will bless thee
and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.
And he builded an altar there
and called upon the name of the Lord
and pitched his tent there.
And there Isaac's servants digged a well.
So look, when you find something that works, do it.
You find a job that's working, stay with it.
Do it, right?
You find a system, go with it.
But when circumstances change, when the economy changes,
when technology changes, when the situation changes,
when your circumstances change,
you have to be ready to adapt and move forward
and not just give up or just quit
or just stop growing and learning.
This is a great lesson that we can learn from Isaac.
If you're not moving forward, you're moving backwards.
If you're not growing, you're shrinking.
If you're not excelling, you're dying.
How many businesses, think about all the businesses
that started out as great businesses
and now they're crummy businesses.
You know, businesses that you used to love.
Okay, but they just, they basically,
instead of adapting and staying current
and keep on trying hard, keep on working hard,
they get to a point where they just want to coast
and then other competition comes up
and then in order to make money,
they just start cutting corners.
Instead of actually like adapting
and doing better and improving
and hey, let's outdo the competition,
they just start cutting corners,
being dishonest and whatever
and they go down the tubes,
churches go down the tubes,
businesses go down the tubes.
You know, people that were once great,
preachers that were once great,
now it's like you can't even listen to them anymore
because they've not learned anything in the last 20 years
and if you don't learn anything for 20 years,
you become an idiot at some point.
You become a fool
because we're constantly losing information every day.
Every day, you're gonna probably forget something
that you read in the Bible today.
Every day that goes by,
if you read zero Bible a year from now,
you're gonna know a lot less Bible than you know now, right?
10 years from now, you're gonna forget even more.
What was that guy that got swallowed by the whale?
Who was that guy, you know, the 10 commandments?
What was that guy again?
You're gonna forget even the most basic things
unless you're keeping current on it
and unless you keep reading it, keep learning it.
You've got to adapt.
You must be able to adapt.
Now, let me teach you something as well.
It's called the overload principle, okay?
So when we think about adapting, right?
Because the title of sermon is to adapt and overcome.
Get with the program, okay?
Stay current.
Here's something called the overload principle, okay?
So who knows what the overload principle is?
Put up your hand if you know what I mean by that.
Who's into...
One person knows what I'm talking about.
Think about it from a weightlifting perspective.
Now who knows what I'm talking about?
All right, now we're up to almost 10.
All right.
Well, you know what?
I'm so glad that I'm teaching you about this then
because at least I'm not getting up and teaching something
where 99% of people, yeah, we already know.
All right, get ready to adapt, folks.
I'm teaching you something new here.
The overload principle is this.
In order to get stronger, you must overload your muscles.
In order to get smarter, you have to overload your brain.
In order to get better at playing the piano,
you got to overload your piano playing circuits.
I don't know how else to word that.
Okay, look, this is called the overload principle.
Now if I go to the gym and I lift the same amount of weight
for the same amount of reps
and I do that three times a week religiously
and even if I'm lifting a lot of weight,
I will not get any stronger at all.
There will be no adaptation.
Now this explains why every water delivery guy
is not just like this huge Hulk buff dude
because you'd think they would be lifting
all those heavy bottles out of you.
I mean, that's a workout, right?
Those five gallon bottles are pretty heavy
and they're just unloading just bottle after bottle
after bottle after bottle.
I mean, you'd think that they would just be huge.
I mean, you'd think that the mailman,
I mean, the mailman's out walking every day
for a long time.
You'd think he's ready to just walk across
the United States or run an ultra marathon or something.
But the reason that they're not
is because they're doing the same thing every day.
So if you became a water delivery guy
for the first few weeks, you're going to get a lot stronger.
I mean, the first few weeks you're going to go home
and your arms are going to be sore
and your muscles are going to be getting bigger
and bigger as your body adapts
to being able to unload those heavy water bottles.
But you know, after about a month of that,
you're not going to get any stronger.
You're just going to be stuck at that one point.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Okay, if you sat down at the piano
and play the same songs,
you just sit there and just run through the same songs.
I don't care if you practice for two hours a day,
365 days a year.
You sit down and play the same songs,
you will never get better at playing the piano.
You must play songs that are a little bit too hard for you.
Songs that are a little bit over your head
that challenge you, that push you,
and then you're going to get better at playing the piano.
You got to go into the gym and lift a little bit more
than you did last week or more reps or whatever.
If you want to get stronger,
this is called the overload principle.
This is the reason why Greek professors
can go to a Bible college and teach Greek for 20 years
and they can't speak Greek.
They cannot speak Greek.
They cannot even pick up a Greek New Testament
in most cases,
and if you just flipped open to a random passage,
they cannot sight read the Greek New Testament
and just open up and just read it
like they're reading English,
but yet they've been teaching Greek for a living for 20 years.
How can this be?
Because here's the thing,
they're teaching the same class,
same vocabulary, same grammar.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
They've got the same,
you know, there's 5,400 some words
that are used in the New Testament
and they're basically teaching their students 319 of them
and they're teaching,
and if they just keep teaching those same 319 words
for 40 semesters,
does that mean that they're going to be able
to read the New Testament now?
Or let's say they teach a thousand words.
They're 80% of the words they don't know
as far as the vocabulary.
So do you see what I'm saying?
People who get stuck in a certain pattern,
they're not growing, they're not learning,
they're not getting any smarter,
they're not challenging themselves.
If we're not challenged, we're going nowhere.
We're getting weaker,
we're not moving forward, okay?
And this is the way it is with your job too.
You know, if you just go to your job
and just do the exact same thing,
you're never learning anything,
you're stuck in that,
and then all of a sudden something changes like,
oh, we're eliminating that position.
Now where does that leave you?
You know, so this is why you have to be adaptable.
You have to be ready to say,
okay, well, let me do something different.
It's like the people who whine about the self-checkout.
Oh, you're taking away people's jobs.
If a machine can do it better than somebody,
then let a machine do it.
So what?
But it's like, oh, you're taking away those people's jobs.
So, okay, well, and this is like those states
where you're not allowed to pump your own gas.
You know what I'm talking about?
It's like, I'm not allowed to pump my own gas.
I have to pay somebody to pump my gas for me.
So I have to pay more so that some guy in a white outfit
can come out and, and he's not even wearing a white outfit.
At least in the 50s, they came out with a white outfit on.
They check your oil and wiped your window down.
No, it's just some guy,
just half-heartedly,
pump, who needs to hire somebody to pump their gas for them?
Who wants to pump your own gas
and pay a little bit less at the pump?
Okay, guess what?
Times change, move on.
Well, what about the guy whose job it is to pump gas?
He needs to get a different job.
He needs to learn another skill besides pulling one trigger.
Okay, there are other,
so what I'm saying is we've got to be learning.
We got to be growing.
And listen to me, use that skill.
We've got to be learning.
We got to be growing.
And listen to me, you that are getting older,
you need to be careful of this,
that you don't slip into this thing
of where you don't adapt anymore.
I have met people that are 90 years old
that are as sharp as a tack.
I have spoken to 90 year olds and man, they are sharp
and they're interesting and they can learn.
They can still learn new things.
You know, you'll tell them something,
you'll teach them something.
And then months later, they'll be like, oh yeah.
And I took what you said and I learned even more.
And here's what I found.
And they're 90.
You run into other people that are only 70
and they are stuck in a certain program.
Okay, what was that term
that you were telling me the other day?
They're like, they're the non-playable character.
NPC.
People, these people become like a non-playable character
by the time they're like 50.
Or 60, they're just like in a routine
where basically they're doing the same things every day
and they learn nothing new.
And these are the people that are gonna be senile first.
I promise you that.
They will be the ones who get Alzheimer's first.
They'll get dementia first.
They will be senile first
because they have stopped learning.
And you know what?
If you stop learning,
your brain will lose the ability to learn.
You will get to a point where it's impossible to learn.
Look, I've been out soul winning
and tried to give the gospel to someone
and come to the conclusion,
this person is incapable of learning.
They're like, it's like talking to a robot.
I'm talking about older people
when they get to a certain point
where you, who's ever felt like, you know,
I'm talking to someone who's incapable of learning.
And so you're friendly and all right,
God bless you, have a good day.
But you're just like, what can I do here?
This person is incapable of learning.
I don't ever want to get to that point.
You know, the Bible says it's better to be
a poor child, right, than a king.
I'm misquoting this.
But you know, the Bible talks about the king,
the old and foolish king who will no longer be admonished.
You know, talking about old people getting to a point
where no one can teach them any more thing.
No one can correct them.
No one can admonish them.
Don't ever get to that point.
That's the secret to staying young.
And you know, hey, I'm all for staying in shape physically,
but you know what?
I'd rather that my body be totally decrepit
and still have my mind
than to have a great physique
and my mind is just senile
and I've become a non-playable character robot automaton
who just gets up every morning
and just goes through like a computer program
where I'm just stuck in a loop on repeat, okay?
I'm telling you, this is a danger.
Even studies are constantly showing,
scientific studies are constantly showing
that if you do crossword puzzles
and Sudoku, learn a foreign language,
that you will push back Alzheimer's.
You'll push back dementia.
You'll push back senility by exercising your brain.
But if you're just gonna sit there
and watch TV all day,
and I'm talking to those that are in your 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s,
you're gonna sit and watch TV all day?
You know what?
Just hello senility.
Hello nursing home, right?
Hello non-playable character.
And you know what?
Go learn what non-playable character means
because then at least you're learning something new.
But I'm telling you,
I am dedicated to keeping my mind until the bitter end.
And so I'm gonna keep learning.
And you know, I'm gonna read my Bible every day.
I'm not just gonna say,
you know, oh, I already know the Bible.
I already know what that says.
I've studied the Bible my whole life.
Don't tell me anything new.
Hey, I had a pastor friend call me up this week
and tell me something.
I was like, man, I've never even thought of that.
That's so cool.
I gotta study that.
Hey, new things we need to be learning all the time.
Growing, moving forward.
And here's the bottom line with the overload principle.
You can't get comfortable in life.
Don't get comfortable in your job.
Don't get comfortable with your level of knowledge or learning.
Don't get comfortable physically.
The key to staying adaptable,
the key to growing and moving forward is
you have to be a little bit uncomfortable all the time.
You want to have a comfortable piano practice?
Just sit down and play all the old songs you already know.
You're gonna have a great time.
And you're not gonna be any better
at playing piano when you're done.
You know, and look, I've been guilty of that.
And, you know, I've sat and played the same songs
and it's like, why am I not progressing?
Then I started forcing myself playing in the keys
that I hate.
You know, when you're a hymn player,
you love the flats.
You gotta start playing those keys.
Start playing those sharps.
And you know what?
You'll get so much more out of your practice,
but your practice is gonna be a little bit more uncomfortable.
But you know what?
Discomfort equals moving forward, growth, adaptation, okay?
No pain, no gain, all right?
And look, if you're not willing to push yourself on the job
and then you're just the same electrician
you were 20 years ago,
the same plumber you were 20 years ago,
you don't wanna try new systems or learn new things
or get on the current technology,
you know what's gonna happen?
Then all of a sudden,
you're gonna get put out of business or something
and then you're gonna cry about it.
Like, oh, it's not fair, you know?
Well, maybe you should have learned how to do something
other than operating a cash register.
And then when the self-checkout showed up,
you would have been able to move on
and you would have been like, oh, great,
this self-checkout's great.
Now I don't have to sit here and scan groceries anymore.
Now I can do something a little bit more advanced.
I was sick of messing with that anyway.
But if you wanna just mop the floor
for the rest of your life,
then just don't learn anything, don't grow,
and then eventually, you know what?
They're gonna make electric mop.
All you know how to do is just mop that floor.
You're just like a robot
and then they'll make a robot
that's gonna mop that floor.
Okay, you've gotta be constantly challenging yourself,
growing, moving forward.
And look, our church, our church is a great church.
I mean, our church has accomplished a lot.
I mean, I could sit here and look at our church
and say, wow, God has really blessed beyond anything
I ever could have imagined 13 years ago.
I never imagined the success that we've had.
I never envisioned what has happened
over the last 13 years.
I never would have even dreamed of what has happened.
So am I just gonna sit back and say,
oh man, this is great.
Let's just freeze it right where it is.
You know what I mean?
We got a great system, I got a great staff.
Let's just, man, let's just let this moment last forever.
Let this feeling last forever.
No, I'm not gonna say, hey, freeze it, lock it in.
No, you know what I'm gonna say?
Okay, what's the next thing?
What's the next thing on the floor?
What's the next thing on the horizon
for Faithful Word Baptist Church?
Hey, what are we not doing?
What can we do to push it even further,
push it even harder?
You know, we just found a new software
where now instead of live streaming
on one YouTube channel,
right now we're live streaming in 22 places right now.
Yeah, right now we're on like a bunch
of YouTube channels, Vimeo,
a whole bunch of Facebook channels.
Literally going to like 20 some live feeds
right now with this sermon.
Why?
Why not just keep on,
and then have there been some glitches lately?
Yeah, okay, I'm gonna upload
that Wednesday night sermon.
I've got it intact.
But the point is, yeah,
there are gonna be some glitches along the way.
There are some problems along the way
where things go wrong
when you're trying out new stuff, right?
But what are we gonna do?
Just be streaming to one YouTube channel
until Jesus comes?
And then we're gonna be like
the old IFB that's like,
hey, you want a tape of last week's sermon?
It's gonna be $5.
Is that what we're gonna do?
Offer cassettes of our sermons?
No, but you know what?
Eventually YouTube is gonna be like a cassette.
So what I'm saying is,
we gotta keep learning, growing, moving forward.
And you know what?
We're not gonna stop.
We're not gonna coast.
You say, what are we gonna do
when we finish all the Indian reservations?
Then we're just gonna start hitting small towns.
We're gonna hit all the mining towns.
And look, we've come up with a system
with the soul-winning marathons.
Now the soul-winning marathons
are happening all over America
and even all over the world.
Does that mean we're just gonna say,
all right, let's just leave that in place?
No, we need to come up with something new,
new ideas, new ministries,
new missions trips, right?
Let's go to some countries
that we've never gone to
and do soul-winning there, right?
Let's do missions somewhere new.
Let's pioneer something new.
Let's be like Isaac,
who's always moving forward,
growing, waxing great,
and when he sows, he reaps a hundredfold.
He's not just stuck on one thing,
one system, one place.
No, and look,
I'm not saying we're gonna change the doctrine.
The doctrine never,
this is an old-fashioned Baptist church
in the sense that our doctrine's old-fashioned.
We're King James only.
We're singing the old hymns.
We're going out door-to-door soul-winning.
We're preaching hard,
hellfire and damnation.
This is not a modernistic or liberal
or worldly type church,
but let me tell you something.
We are going to be cutting edge
when it comes to being efficient
to get the work of the Lord done.
We're not still writing out
handwritten copies of the scripture on parchment.
We're gonna go down
and purchase Bibles in cases of a thousand.
We're not gonna copy them with quill and ink.
We're not just gonna say,
I'm just gonna use pens and pencils.
We don't need a computer or something.
No, we need to stay current
and we need to grow
and that we need to be able to differentiate
between the things that don't change
and the things that do change.
In your personal life,
I hope you'll apply this sermon
and not be that guy on the job
who,
we're getting a new software.
We just bought a new tool.
Be willing to embrace change
and say, hey, this is an opportunity
for me to learn.
This is an opportunity for me to grow
and embrace each stage of life.
Now you have kids.
Don't be like, oh man,
now that I have kids,
it's so hard and everything.
And then you have men leaving their wives
to go out and be young again.
To go out and be a kid again.
The midlife crisis.
They want to go out and get the convertible
and get the Harley Davidson
and all of a sudden
they're gonna have a second teenage years
because they didn't get enough
the first time around or something.
It's foolish.
Grow, adapt, change, move forward.
Be your age.
Be the stage that you're in.
Let your marriage grow.
Let your child rearing grow.
Your church, your business,
everything needs to be moving forward
all the time.
And if your goal is to coast
and have it on cruise control,
your goal is misguided.
You've got to challenge yourself
and push yourself.
You got to be a little bit uncomfortable
all the time in life
or you're gonna become a weakling.
Just like if you were never
a little uncomfortable at the gym,
you're not getting any stronger.
You got to go through pain.
You got to push yourself.
You got to be better
than you were last week
and not just sit there and say,
oh man, finally I got my life the way I want it.
Finally, I got the church.
You don't think that I could do that as pastor
and just say, oh man,
I got the church the way I want it now.
I mean, we got a big crowd.
The bills are paid.
I've already studied my Bible.
I've got a backlog of 2000 sermons.
Hey, I can just sit down,
relax, chill out,
and just repeat those 2000 sermons.
And nobody's even gonna know the difference
because you don't remember
what I preached 2000 sermons ago.
I can just start deleting the old stuff
from the archives.
I'm saying you don't think I could just coast
and just say, well, here I am
and just sit back.
No, but look, every single day I wake up
and I'm trying to push myself
and figure out what we can do
to reach more people.
We are not at maximum efficiency.
What can we do to reach more people?
What's a new ministry
or what's a new video
or a new documentary
or what can we do to get more?
And then I'm constantly finding new ways
to study the Bible
and learn more and write new sermons.
Do not get stuck.
And look, I know that this sermon,
probably some people when they hear this sermon,
it goes against the grain.
You're the person who needs this sermon.
If this sermon is kind of rubbing you the wrong way,
like, oh, but I just want things to stay the same.
Okay, well, let's see how you look in 20 years.
Let's see if you look the same.
Let's see if your body's the same in 20 years
as it is right now.
Let's see if technology's the same in 20 years.
Can you imagine what technology
is gonna be like 20 years from now?
You better be ready to adapt.
You better be ready to move forward
or you're gonna get smoked, all right?
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Help us not to be like these guys in the book of Acts
where they're trying to sabotage the competition
or the guys in Genesis
where they're trying to sabotage the competition
and try to slow down other people
because they don't wanna go forward, Lord.
Help us to be like Isaac
who's willing to keep going forward
and growing and learning, Lord.
Help us never to get to a point where we think,
oh, we already know everything about the Bible
or I'm not gonna change what I believe about anything.
Lord, if the Bible shows us that we're wrong,
help us always to be ready to change what we believe
when confronted with scripture, Lord.
Help us always to be ready to tighten up our doctrine
and bring it in accordance with your word.
Help us in our jobs, Lord.
Help us as men, Lord, to go to our jobs
and every single day do our best
and work heartily as unto you
and help us not to just go to our job
and just do the minimum and coast and phone it in, Lord.
Help us to give it our best every day,
work hard, sweat and toil and bleed
and make something great with our lives
and do something great for you, Lord.
Please just help everyone who's here
to understand and comprehend this truth from your word
that everything's temporary that we can see
and we need to move forward and focus on the eternal things.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.