When It's Not Going Like You Think It Is!

Well, clap your hands if you love him tonight, if you're thankful for his blessing. Come on, come on. Take 30 seconds and bless his name. Somebody lift your voice and shout to the Lord. Come on.

I know it's Monday night, you've worked hard and you got food in your belly, but you've already made the effort to come. You may as well worship. Come on, somebody bless his name. Lord, tonight we've not come to hear from man. Lord, tonight we've not come to be entertained.

Lord, tonight we've come to worship you. We've come to declare that there's none but above you and there's none beside you. That you stand alone in the solitude of yourself. God, forgive our sins and heal our diseases. Redeem our life from destruction and crown us with loving kindness and tender mercy.

Satisfy our mouth with good things and renew our youth like that of the eagle. And the people said Amen just before you seated. I want to pray a special prayer of blessing on you. Listen, I'm not an evangelist, I'm a pastor pastor. And so I know, I know the struggle of having off night services.

We like, we like the Sunday morning crowd as pastors and I know the struggle of Having off night services. And I know how appreciative I am for the 10 or 15% of my congregation that support everything that we do. And I promise you that your pastors are appreciative for you tonight coming out and being a part of this service. So I want to pray a special prayer of blessing over every person that's here even before I preach the word. Lift your hands and let me bless you today, Father.

I pray your touch would be on this people, God, I realize there may be others that tried to get here. I realize there may be others that made half hearted efforts to get here, God, but did not succeed. But these people, God, they're as busy as anybody else in this church, God, they've got as busy families as anybody else. They have the same amount of time in the day that anyone else does. And God, I thank you that they've come to honor you.

I thank you that they've come to honor your word. I thank you that they've come to honor their pastors. I thank you that they've come to honor our ministry in this house tonight. And so I pray a special prayer of blessing on them. God, cause your countenance to shine upon them.

Be gracious to them. Give them perfect peace. Grant them the desires of their heart. God, cause all of their plans to succeed. And then we will shout for joy when they are victorious.

Let them walk under an open heaven. Being the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath. Blessed when they go in and blessed when they come out. I pray it in Jesus name. If you receive it, shout Amen.

Clap your hands one more time and give him, give him praise today. You can be seated in the house of the Lord today. It's my privilege and honor to be with you again tonight. Come back tomorrow night. I'll be sharing with you tomorrow night.

And then Wednesday night before I make my way back to Cleveland, Tennessee, my good sister sitting here on the second row came up to me tonight. You blessed my soul. She walked up to me tonight and she said, pastor, she said, I'm that little blind cow. I'm that little one, I'm that little one that there was no worth, there was no value, there was no hope, there was no future until I walked into this church. And God used Pastor Mark and Sister Jan. God used Pastor Brad and Sister Morgan to deposit in me the truth of the gospel.

That there was value to my life. And that just absolutely blessed my sanctified soul. Thank you for sharing that testimony with me. Told me she's two Years clean. Clean and sober.

You oughta. That's worth clapping about. He who the son sets free. Somebody say he who the son sets free. That person is free indeed.

And I believe you're going to walk in that freedom all the days of your life. In the powerful name of Jesus, let me preach to you very quickly tonight. Turn with me to Matthew, chapter six, verse 34. Matthew, chapter six, verse 34 dot I'll read it to you from the King James version tonight, but then I'll paraphrase it to you and give it to you from the NIV also. And look at this a couple of different ways that different translations worded tonight.

And I want to preach to you tonight from the words of one of the greatest gospel songs ever written. It's a song that literally, on a Saturday in 2022, this song literally saved my life. And I believe this song has power to save your life today. I believe this song has power to save your marriages. I believe this song has power to save your careers.

I believe this song has power to save the relationships of your life that the enemy is fighting against. And I'll talk to you in just a few moments about the words of this song. In Matthew, the 6th chapter and the 34th verse, the Bible says, take, therefore no thought for the morrow. How you doing with that, huh, boy? That's that.

That's a tough one, isn't it? To take ye therefore no thought for the morrow shall take no thought for the things for tomorrow shall take care of the things of itself. Sufficient it unto the day is the evil thereof. Let me give it to you a different way. Be anxious for nothing.

Don't worry. Don't panic. Don't. Don't fret. Don't fear about tomorrow.

Don't borrow tomorrow's trouble. Hmm? How are you doing with that?

If you've got that scripture down pat, you're doing much better than me. And maybe you should be doing the preaching tonight, because sometimes I get worried about tomorrow. Does anybody else ever get worried about tomorrow? If I'm honest with you, sometimes I get concerned about tomorrow. I get concerned about how mortgages are going to get paid.

I get concerned about how church budgets are going to get met. I get concerned about how missionaries are going to get supported. Sometimes I get concerned about tomorrow. But the word of the Lord says to us, take no thought concerning the morrow. Don't worry.

Don't be fearful. Don't be anxious. Everybody say with me, fear not. How are you doing with that? Are you living your life plagued by fear or Are you living your life filled with faith?

The two are polar opposites. And it comes so natural to us to live in fear instead of walking by faith, because fear is dominated by sight. Faith is something totally different. And God wants you to live your life not in fear. As a matter of fact, the most frequent command in the Scriptures is fear not.

He. He tells us not to fear more than he tells us not to steal. He tells us not to fear more than he tells us not to commit adultery. He tells us not to fear more than he tells us not to lie. Over and over and over again.

The Bible is replete with the command fear not. And. And so I want you to live your life today, beginning today, not worried about tomorrow. The Bible says. Jesus read letters in your Bible.

It says, consider the lilies of the field. They spin not and tore not. Yet I say unto you that Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed as one of these. If God then so clothed the grass of the field which is here today and gone tomorrow, how much more is he going to take care of you? Listen to me.

You don't have to worry about your tomorrow. He watches the sparrows in the air, and you are more valuable than many sparrows. God is on your side. He is with you. He is for you.

I heard an old black preacher one time preaching, and he said, if God is for me and Jesus is with me, and the Holy Ghost is in me, and angels are encamp, encamped all about me, tell me, whom shall I fear? That that preacher was one of the greatest preachers that ever lived. His name was Evie Healed. And he imparted the truth when he preached that you and I, as believers should live our life dominated by faith and not plagued by fear. We should.

We should allow the presence of God to replace panic. Does anybody know what it is to panic? Come on. If you've ever had a panic attack, wave your hand at me so I know I'm preaching to somebody. If you've ever sat down and looked at the bills and you panic, shout Amen.

If you ever looked at the plight that your sons and daughters were in and you panic, shout Amen. If you ever looked at a situation at your workplace and saw the person to your left getting fired and the person to your right getting fired and wondered if it was coming to you next and you panicked, shout Amen. Listen. God wants to replace your panic with peace. He is the Prince of peace tonight.

And God wants you to walk in peace. He wants you to walk in faith. He wants you to walk in confidence. What song is it, Brother Lipsey, that is so powerful that it saved your life on a Saturday about four years ago. And you think can save our lives in difficult seasons.

You think can save our lives when we're facing panic instead of peace. It's an old. If you're young and you sing these new songs, and I like new songs. Your psalmist sings some good ones tonight. If you're thankful for your worship leader, clap your hands and shout, amen.

Boy, she does a tremendous. She does a tremendous, tremendous job. And I love all the new songs that we sing, but how many know there's some good. There's some good words in some of those old songs of the church, too. And there's an old song of the.

There's an old song of the church that says, one day at a time, sweet Jesus, that. That's all that I'm asking from you. If. If you've never heard that song, wave at me. I got some people that have never heard that song.

You've never. That many people have never heard that song. What? You're kidding me. One day at a time, sweet Jesus.

That's all that I'm asking from you. Listen to what the song says. It says, give me the strength to do every day what I have to do. It says, yesterday's gone, sweet Jesus, and tomorrow may never be mine. So, Lord, for my sake, teach me to take one day at a time.

Listen, the words of that song will change your life. The next verse says this. It says, lord, do you remember when you walked among men? Well, Jesus, you know, if you're looking below that it's harder now than then pushing and shoving or crowding my mind. Lord, for my sake, teach me to take one day at a time.

Listen, it would behoove you and I to learn to live our lives one day at a time and stop worrying about tomorrow. The point of the song is clear. Life is hard. Life is tough. Life is difficult.

Life is worrisome. So much so that the author of the song writes lyrics where he's speaking to the Lord and he says, lord, if you're looking below, you know that life is harder now than when you walked among men. Now, I'm not sure that the two authors of this psalm really wanted to compare the difficulty of their life in 1974, when that song was written, to the difficulty of Jesus life. You know, sometimes. Does anybody besides me ever have a pity party?

You ever have a pity party for yourself? And sometimes we get to having pity parties, and when we have pity parties. We get to thinking we got it, we got it real bad. But listen, if you're here tonight, you're in a season of having a pity party thinking you've got it real bad. I would encourage you to go read Fox's Book of Martyrs.

And I would encourage you to read how each one of the disciples died. All of them but one. John the beloved died. Martyrs death. And so it's pretty, it's a pretty bold statement to say to the Lord that things are harder now than they were when you walked upon this earth and they wrote this song in 1974.

I can't imagine things were more difficult, things were more panic packed in 1974 than they are in 2026. How many know the heats got turned up in the kitchen? But, but, but they were saying life is hard, life is tough, life is difficult. And you have to learn to take life one day at a time if you're gonna make it. Or, or life can suck the joy out of you.

Life can suck the peace out of you. Sometimes in life you have to learn to minimize the scope of your vision. Listen to me, if you're going to succeed in life, if you're going to, if you're going to have a blessed marriage, if you're going to have a blessed career, if you're going to have a blessed family, if you're going to have a blessed ministry, if you're going to succeed in life, sometimes you're going to have to learn to shrink down your vision. You're going to have to learn to focus in how many of you are ever watching a video or looking at a picture on your phone and you need it to get bigger and you make that motion. You're shrinking down the scope of your vision.

You're moving that screen and making things bigger so you can see it better sometimes if you're going to make it in life, you've got to shrink down the scope of your vision and you've got to just deal with things one day at a time. If you know what I'm talking about, shout Amen. Well, Brother Lipsey, don't we, don't we need to enlarge the scope of our vision? Doesn't the Bible tell us that if we fail to plan, we plan to fail? First of all, that's not a scripture.

I've had people tell me it was in Proverbs. I've looked all through proverbs. It's not there. We got all, all of these things that we say. The Bible says cleanliness Cleanliness is next to godliness.

We got all these things that we say. The Bible says that the Bible never really said. Now what the Bible does say is that without a vision, the people perish. And that's where we get the idea that if you, that if you fail to plan, you pla. You plan, plan to fail.

And I'm not telling you you don't need to plan, but I'm telling you sometimes you've got to shrink down the scope of your vision, and you've got to deal with the whole of your plan one segment at a time. You've got to learn to just to deal with what is exactly right in front of you. How many has ever had somebody ask you, how do you eat an elephant? Somebody give me the answer one bite at a time. What are they saying?

They're saying sometimes you've got to shrink down the scope of your vision if you're going to fulfill your plan in the hole, you've got to learn to sell a mate. Celebrate incremental progress. You can't just say, I'm gonna wait until I've arrived where I want to arrive before I get peace. I'm gonna wait until I've achieved everything that I want to achieve to get peace. Listen, people that have that idea, it's like somebody putting a ladder up a building, climbing up that ladder, getting to the top of the ladder and realizing they've got their ladder leaning against the wrong building.

You've got to learn to celebrate the small successes. You've got to learn to. To celebrate small incremental success. You've got to learn to live your life one day at a time. Now, let me share with you an experience that happened to me several years ago.

I, I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm trying to fight off old age. How many we got? Anybody else in the building trying to fight off old age? I'm trying to, I've got young men lifting their hands, saying, what are you talking about? You know, if a son of I was your age, I wouldn't have lifted my hand.

You trying to fight off old age? Back when you get my age and you get your pastor's age, you've got to fight off old age. And one of the ways that I try to fight off old age, I'm an endurance athlete. I've run about 20 or 25 marathons in my life. And when I turned 50, I decided that marathons wasn't enough anymore and that I needed to become an ironman.

Does anybody here know what an ironman is. If you don't know what an ironman consists of, let me tell you, it's a long, long day. An ironman means you get in the water and you swim two and a half miles. Has anybody in the building besides me ever swam two and a half miles? Anybody else in the building?

Bunch of 10 men around here I'm preaching to right now. Got one Iron man and a bunch of 10 men in the house in Frisco, Texas. So, so, so, so, so you gotta, you gotta swim two and a half miles. When you get out of the water after swimming that two and a half miles, it's not over. Then you've gotta run and put your biking shoes on and you've gotta get on a bike and you've gotta back 112 miles.

Anybody besides me ever rode a bike 112 miles. Bunch of 10 men in Frisco Texas getting preached to nine Ironman. When you finish that 112 mile bike ride and that two and a half mile swim, you're still not finished. Then you gotta put your running shoes on and you gotta run. 26.

How old are you? Young man? I'm gonna make you feel bad. Is it your girlfriend or your wife? It's your fiance.

I'm gonna make you feel bad. I guarantee you 23 year old young stud, I'll beat you to death in an Ironman anytime you want to do it. I guarantee you can't. You can't, you can't beat me in a two and a half mile swim. You can't beat me in 112 mile bike ride, you can't beat me in a 26.2 mile run because I'm an iron man and you're a tin man.

Somebody clap your hands and shout amen. So, so that's, that's what. Hey, keep on loving him honey. Hey, he's got potential. I'm telling you.

He's got, he's, he may be an iron man one day. Let me see. Oh hey, that's pretty good. I didn't see that coming. Huh?

I didn't see that coming. So an Ironman is a long day and I've completed three Ironman. I've completed dozens of half ironman. But one day I went to Panama City Florida to compete in an Ironman and I've got a plan there. Now the last ironman I did before that was in Chattanooga Tennessee where I live.

And Chattanooga Tennessee is up and down, it's hills, it's a tough bike ride, it's a Tough run. Panama City, Florida is flat and I'm going to Panama City. And my plan that day is to set a pr. A personal record, a personal best. I want to get the best time that I've ever got.

I've been planning on having a great race. I'm in good shape. I'm ready to go. I wake up that morning and the big picture is that I'm gonna swim in about an hour. The big picture is I'm gonna bike in about five and a half hours.

The big picture is I'm gonna run a marathon in about four hours. And I'm gonna try to log the fastest Ironman time that I've ever had in my life. How many know that in life things don't always go as planned? If you know that's true, shout Amen. I get down to the water and before the race starts, I put my goggles on and I have done something in this race that I've.

And I don't want to get bogged down because I don't want to preach long, but I've done something in this race I've never done before. If I take my glasses off, I don't know who you are. I can't see anything. I mean, I'm. I'm blind as a bat.

I can barely make out blurry, fuzzy places of who people are. And so when I'm swimming in an Ironman event, I can't see where I'm going because I've got goggles on and I can't wear contacts. I can't make myself put something in my eye. And so I've just got to. I gotta.

I gotta follow the blur. I just follow the people. I can't see the buoys. I don't know where I'm going. But that year I had purchased some prescription goggles.

I didn't know they had those. And I purchased these prescription goggles and it was the first race I had ever worn them in. And I'd only been in the water with them two or three times. When I went in the water to try the temperature of the water about 15 minutes before we were going to take off and those new goggles began to leak and salt water just began to fill my eyes. I tightened them up.

I did everything I could to make it work. And I couldn't make it work and I literally had to just throw those goggles. And I thought, who's got extra goggles? Who's got. And I found some extra goggles and I finally got them on.

So things Were going off off chart and the train was coming off the tracks before the race even started. And then we got in the water now. And the two previous full Ironmans that I have, none. The first one was in Cozumel, Mexico. It's called the prettiest swim in all of Ironman.

You swim in the ocean, but you're swimming in a bay. There's no way waves. It's calm, it's peaceful. The water is crystal clear. Where you're swimming is about 60 foot deep.

But the water's so clear that as you stroke it looks like your hands are gonna hit the bottom of the ocean floor. The water is so clear, fish are swimming all around you. It's beautiful. It's a wonderful experience. I had done that Ironman and then I did the Ironman in Chattanooga.

And you swim in the Tennessee river and it's got a current that makes you go fast. It's been said that a bag of Doritos can be thrown into the Tennessee river and swim the Tennessee Ironman in an hour and 15 minutes because the current. Current is so fast, it will take it. So I've had two wonderful experience swimming. We're at the Panama City, Florida Ironman.

You don't swim in a. In a bay, you don't swim in a river. You are swimming out into the ocean. You're swimming into the waves with the waves crashing in on you. You've got to swim into the waves and you swim a horseshoe.

You swim out and you turn right and go around the pier and then you turn left and you come in and you come back in to the beach. You get out of the water and you turn and you make a second lap to get the two and a half miles in. And it is a notorious difficult swim. I've got somebody else's goggles on. It's not good.

I get in and I start swimming. The waves are crashing against me like I have never felt waves before in my life. I feel like that I swim 30ft and then I'm pushed back 40ft. Have you ever been in a situation in life where you took one step forward and two steps back? I felt like I was taking one step forward and two steps back.

I would say that between. Between the start and the. And I wish they had this on video to show you. But I would say between the start and the first turn buoy where you turn and go right and things get easier when you turn and go right because you're no longer going into the waves. There are probably 10 directional buoys between the start and the turn.

So you've got a long way to go to get to the turn. And I'm having trouble so quickly that when I get to the first directional buoy, I have to stop and I have to grab the buoy because I've got salt water going in my mouth. And don't forget, you're not swimming by yourself. There's 5,000 people out there kicking you in the head and throwing water on you. It's a tough experience.

And I stop and I grab that buoy, and I'm thinking, my goodness, I've never had a struggle like this in my swim before. And, Jan, I literally thought at the first buoy, I'm going to have to quit. I'm going to have to call them to come and get me. I'm a competitor, and I want to finish and I want to do well. But it's not like I'm on a, you know, on the run, if you get in trouble, you can sit down and they'll come and help you.

Or on the back, if you get in trouble, you can pull the bike over and they'll come and get you. If you can't go any further in the ocean, you drowned.

And I'm thinking, I can't let go of this buoy because if I let go of this buoy, I'm going to drown. And I sat there and I'm trying to gather my composure. I'm trying to get my breath. And I said, okay, I think I've got the anxiety out. I'm having a panic attack, but I think I got it under control, and I take off swimming again.

And I mean, panic sets in. Anxiety sets in. My heart is racing. People are splashing all around me. People are hitting me.

I mean, it's a train wreck. And I make it it to that next buoy, and I. And I have to stop and I have to grab that buoy. Everybody's flying by me in that ocean, and I am literally fighting for my life. And I say to myself, that's it.

I've got to quit. I mean, I. I mean, I don't want to die. If I die, several bad things are going to happen. If I die out there in the ocean, somebody else is going to be nibbling on my wife's ear.

If I die when I'm out there in the ocean, my children are going to be calling somebody else daddy.

If I die when I'm out there in the ocean, somebody else is going to be spending my money. I don't Know which one of those three things bother me the most, but don't none of them cheer me up. And I'm thinking, it's not worth dying. I just need to quit. I just need to say I can't make it.

And I looked out there and I saw that turn buoy eight directional buoys away. And literally what I said to myself, I don't know if I can make it to that turn buoy or not, but I really believe I can make it to that next buoy. I'm not sure that I can get to the turn, and I sure don't think I can get to the second lap. But, but, but I'm confident that I can make it from this buoy to that buoy. And I took off swimming trying to get to that buoy.

I'm about halfway there. It's the worst swim I've ever had. I'm dying. I'm taking in water, and I begin to panic so much that for the first time ever in a race, I have to call for help. There are kayaks that will come to you and help you if you get in trouble.

And I lift my hand and I start yelling, I need help. I need help. Listen, the problem is there's 5,000 people around you. Nobody can hear you shouting. And somebody is swimming by me, and I'm stopping and I'm dog pedaling, I'm treading water saying, I need help.

And I hear somebody shout to me, there's a pad to your left, there's a pad to your left. And I turned to my left and I looked and I saw something that I've never seen in a race before. There was a floating pad there that you could get on, and. And I swam over and I pulled myself up on that pad, and I'm sitting on that pad as everybody else is passing me. Nobody else seems how many know when you're having trouble in life?

Sometimes it seems like nobody's having trouble but you. I mean, the rest of the people, they look like Aquaman. I mean, they're just swimming and they're just flying by. And I'm sitting on that path thinking, this is it. I'm gonna.

I'm gonna have to quit. I'm gonna have to die. As people are swimming by me, they catch me in their peripheral vision, out of their eye. And people stop in the middle of the swimming stroke and look at me and say, you can make it, man. Get back in the water.

I thought, yeah, it's easy for you to say that. Nobody else gonna be Nibbling on your wives here. I mean, but I mean, they're encouraging me. They're telling me, you can make it, you can make it. And finally I get off of the thing and I say, I don't know if I can make it to the turn, but I can make it from this buoy to the next buoy.

I can make it from that buoy to the next buoy and one buoy at a time. Buoy one, buoy two, buoy three. I swim from buoy to buoy. I get to the turn, I catch the current of the ocean. I swim fast that way.

Then when you make the turn to come home, the waves are pushing you in and, I mean, I'm moving in and I feel good. I get out of the ocean and I know I gotta turn and do it again, but I'm in a rhythm now. Things have. Things have gotten better. I get out and I start swimming that second lap.

And listen, that second lap, I thought I was Aquaman in the flesh. I mean, I felt like I was swimming. I, I, I thought I could have been in the Olympics. I was swimming so well. I swam that second lap without issue, without incest.

I got out and went on and finished my Iron man that day. The rest of it was tough. None of it was as tough as that swim, but I did finish that Iron Man. How many know you need to finish the things you start, no matter how tough and no matter how hard hard and no matter how difficult they are. Now, when I went back to my hotel room that night, when I found out what my time in the swim was, you've got a chip on your leg and you know how fast and they can break everything down.

You did. I found out that I did the swim in an hour and 32 minutes. Now, a normal swim for me would be about an hour. So it took me about 32 minutes longer than normal when I found out that my swim was an hour and 32 minutes. If you would have asked me to break up the first lap and the second lap.

How much time did it take you to swim the first lap and how much time did it take you to swim the second lap? I would have told you. It took me an hour to swim the first lap and 32 minutes to swim the second lap. I'm telling my wife in the hotel room that night how bad it was. I'm telling her that I almost drowned on the first lap.

I'm telling that the first lap was terrible. And she is going through the stats on my chip and she Said, I don't understand what you're saying. I said, what do you mean you don't understand? She said, the facts say different, the stats say different. I said, what do you mean?

I said, what do the stats say? And as she's reading the stats, here's what I found out. I found out that I swam the first lap two minutes faster than I swam the second lap. Now, listen. Listen.

That was. That was statistical facts. But the statistical facts did not line up to my experience. The statistical facts did not line up to my truth. Let me tell you something.

There's a lot of people on the earth today using the phrase my truth, my experience. This is what I believe. Listen to me. You can have what you think is your truth until the cows come home, but your truth does not change the truth. Did anybody hear what I just said?

Your truth does not change the truth. Well, I found me another path to God. I've got news for you. There is no other path to God save the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it doesn't matter if you claim that as your truth.

From day one till day 100, you will never see the Heavenly Father unless you come through the shed blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary's cross, because he is not a truth. He said in John 14:6, I'm the way. I'm the truth, I'm the life. And no man comes to the Father unless he comes through me. So the statistical facts did not line up to my truth.

So what I had to do in that moment is I had to reconcile my perceived experience with the statistical facts. And I decided two things. And I'm going to preach those two things to you in the next 10 or 15 minutes. Two lessons of life from my ironman in Panama City, Florida. Lesson number one.

Are you ready for it? When things are going wrong, when everything that can be bad is happening, when it's raining in your life, when the sun is shining everywhere else, listen to me. Truth number one. When things are going bad, hear me. They are probably not as bad as you think they are.

So keep putting your left foot in front of your right foot. Did anybody hear what I just said? I wish you knew where I was going with this. And you wouldn't even wait till the end of the message. You'd stand up right now and say, thank you, Holy Ghost.

Let me say it one more time. When things are going past, when the enemy is launching deadly darts at you, when it seems that Murphy's Law is taking place in your life and everything that can Go wrong will go wrong. Listen, in that moment, in that moment when you get ready to lift the white flag of surrender, Listen, People take their lives in this country every single day. I've had two cousins that have found their way to the cemetery by suicide. And it's because the enemy of their soul convince them that things were worse than they really are.

Listen to me tonight. If everything is going wrong in your life and you think it's bad, you think it's terrible, you think it couldn't be any worse, I've got news for you. It's probably not as bad as you think you are. And what you need to do is resist the urge to lift the white flag of surrender. You need to put your left.

Left foot in front of your right foot, and you need to say, listen, I don't know if I can make it to the turn. I don't know if I can make it to my next birthday. I don't know if I can make it to next year. I don't know if I can get out of this week or not. But what I know I can do is I can get from today to tomorrow if I put my trust in his hand.

Because while I may not know what tomorrow holds, I know who holds tomorrow. And. And by faith in God's word, I'm gonna make it through. If you believe this is good preaching, you ought to clap your hand. It's probably turn to your neighbor and say, it's probably not as bad as you think it is.

Listen, I thought that first lap was bad, but the stats said that I swam the first lap two minutes faster than I swam the second lap. So as I began to reconcile how that was possible, I would have thought that I spent two minutes at every buoy that I stopped at. But in hindsight, seeing the statistical facts, I probably just stopped about 10 seconds at that buoy, grabbed my breath and went on. I would have told you if you asked me before I learned the statistical facts how long I sat on that path. I'd have told you I sat on that pad five minutes.

But when I look back with the statistical facts, I probably sat on that pad for 30 seconds that things were not as bad as I thought they were. And in your life, when you think things are going bad, it may be hard, it may be difficult, it may be a struggle, but it's probably not as bad as you think it is. And the way I was able to get from one buoy to the next buoy and from that buoy to the next buoy, you can take life one bite at a time. I heard a man say, mile by mile, life is hard. But inch by inch, life is a cinch.

Listen, you can make it if you begin to do incremental progress. Just put your left foot in front of your right foot and say, God, I gonna trust you, God. I'm not gonna quit. Listen, had I been in that ocean by myself that day when I sat on that pad, I promise you, I would not have kept on swimming. If I'd have been in that ocean by myself that day, I promise you I would have lifted the white flag of surrender and said, somebody come and pick me up.

Somebody rescue me. But you know what kept me going? People as they were swimming by me that did not even know me would stop and cheer me on. They would say, get back in this water, man. Get back in this race, man.

Don't quit. You can do this. You've got it in you. Listen, today you are not in this life alone. Today you are in a church where there's a preacher that's telling you you can do it, you can make it.

You can get to the next season, you can get to the next chapter. You've got a pastor who will impart to your life when you find this church and you're addicted to drugs and you don't know how you're going to make it, and you don't know where you're going to turn. There's a man of God in this house. There's a family. Listen, you don't got just a man of God and a woman of God.

You've got a whole family. Their son, their daughter, their son in law. They're here. They're cheering you on. They're telling you, get back in the fight.

Get back in the race. You can make it. You are not alone. Somebody clap your hands and shout, amen. Listen, I'm telling you, you can get from where you are to where God wants you to be.

Things are not always as bad as you think they are. Sometimes you've got to trust that God is going to lick his finger, turn the page, pick up a pen and begin writing a brand new chapter in your life. And that that chapter is going to be filled with peace and purpose and power and presence and provision and providence. You can make it. Now, Brother Lipson, do you have any Bible for that?

That's a cute story about an ironman. But do you have any Bible for the fact that things may not always be as bad as I think they are? One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Joseph. I alluded to it when I was preaching to you yesterday morning. Joseph is a young man in the family.

He's only got one sibling younger than him. Everybody else is older than him. Joseph is his father's favorite son. He gives him a coat of many colors. Joseph is a dreamer.

Joseph have visions. Joseph has hopes. Joseph has aspirations. His brothers sell him into slavery. They dip his coat in blood, tear it up, give it to his father, Jacob.

Now, listen to this. They give the coat to his father, Jacob, and they say, your son is dead. Jacob lives for a length of time, believing and living life with the thought that his son is dead. A famine hits the land. Joseph's brothers then come to Egypt, where Joseph is prime minister.

When Joseph gets them there, Joseph keeps Simeon, one of his brothers, and says he's a prisoner and I'll not let him go unless you go back to your father's house and you bring your. Your youngest brother, Benjamin, and bring him to me. Don't show your face in Egypt again unless Benjamin is with you. His brothers return to the father's house. There's no grain there.

They've got to go back to Egypt. His dad, Jacob, says, you got to go back to Egypt. They say, we can't go back to Egypt. The leader of that land told us he would not see our face again unless Benjamin goes with us. So if you're gonna send us, you gotta send Benjamin.

And he listen to what Jacob said. Jacob said, lo, all of these things are against me. Here's what he said. Jacob said, my son, Joseph is no more. Listen what he said.

Simeon is no more. And if you take Benjamin, he will be no more. And then Jacob uses this phrase, all these things are against me. How many of you have ever thought, all these things are against me? Huh?

It's not one thing against you. All these things are against you. Your wife's mean to you, your kids don't like you, your own dog bit you. I mean, it's bad. All these things are against me.

Jacob bought into the lie that things were worse than they really were. Jacob said this. Joseph is no more. Was that true? Was Joseph no more?

Absolutely not. Joseph was the prime minister of Egypt, man. Joseph was sitting at the king's table. Joseph had the nicest ring in the kingdom. Joseph was alive and well and prospering.

But Jacob believed he was no more. After he said, jacob is no more, he said, simeon is no more. Was that true? Was Simeon no more? Absolutely not.

Simeon was sitting down at Joseph's table, eating the best he's eaten in 20 years. Then he said, benjamin is going to be no more. Was that true? Absolutely not. It wasn't true.

Benjamin was about to be reunited with his older brother, Joseph. Joseph was going to take care of the family. Jacob was coming to Egypt with him, and there was going to be a big family reunion. Listen to me. It wasn't as bad as Jacob thought it was.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it was when I was swimming in that swim. And I've got new. Listen. God has sent me 900 miles from Cleveland, Tennessee. I didn't have to come here tonight.

You didn't need me to come come here tonight. But God sent me here tonight to tell you it's not as bad as you think it is. Don't give up. Don't go in. You're not going under.

You're going over. God is on your side. He's going to change the story. Somebody clap your hands and give him praise. Truth.

So truth number one from that iron man experience, when things are going bad, it's probably not as bad as you think it is. So keep on moving. Turn to your neighbor and say, you got to keep on moving. Truth number. Truth number two.

Truth number two, just as important as truth number one. So I thought I swam the first lap in an hour, but I thought I was ready for the Olympics in the second lap. I thought I swam it in 31 minutes. I was two minutes slower in the second lap than I was in the first lap. I thought I did it in 31 minutes.

When I found out I'm not that fast, I did it in 47 minutes. So truth number one, when things are going wrong, it's probably not as bad as you think it is. Keep on moving. Truth number two, when things are going good, you are not as good as you think you are.

Hello.

Turn to. Now, all of y' all was excited to tell your neighbor a while ago. Listen, all of you were excited to tell your neighbor a while ago things aren't as bad as you think it is. Keep on moving. Turn to your neighbor and say, you're not as good as you think you are.

Listen, you acted like you enjoyed telling that young lady. I saw joy in your eyes when you said that. So truth number one was it's not as bad as you think it is. And the admonition of that truth is, keep on moving. Truth number two is, you're not as good as you think you are.

And the admonition that goes with that Is stay humble.

Stay humble.

Don't get puffed up. When God gets to blessing you, don't let your chest get out. Listen to me. And I'm finished preaching. And I never preach this short.

Give the Lord a hand of praise. Listen, listen, listen, listen.

The Bible never expresses that there's a single moment in life when it's God's will to humble you.

It's not God's will to humble you. You won't find that in Scripture. But over and over and over and over again, the Bible admonishes us to humble ourselves.

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. And what will he do? He will lift you up. The Lord. Listen to this.

If you get to thinking you're aquaman in life and you put your chest out, remember this scripture. The Bible says, the Lord resists the proud.

I never want to be resisted by God, to have God. Now, how many of you have been married more than 10 years? Anybody ever had their wife stiff arm you? Come on. It's no fun when your wife stiff arms you.

Yesterday, you stiffed on him yesterday. And he's bitter about it. We're going to get him in the altar tonight. Pray him through.

It's no fun for your wife to stiff arm you. It's no fun for your friends to stiff arm you. It's no fun for your boss to stiff arm you. But it's something totally different for God to stiff arm you. And the Bible says he resists the proud.

When things are going bad, they're probably not as bad as you think they are. Keep on moving. When things are going good, it's not because of you. It's his favor. It's his help.

My dad. I wished everybody could have knew. And I know everybody feels this way. Brother. Dad.

But my dad, he was just. He was the greatest man that ever walked. Mark, I mean, he was the man. My boys do not look at me the way I looked at my dad. I mean, my daddy was.

My boys are hard to impress.

My daddy, he was. Let me just tell you what kind of a man he was. One day, we had two different farms. He had about 100 head acres. 100 cows at one farm and 100 cows at another farm.

And one day we were driving out of the pasture and the road went by a barbed wire fence and the fence was no longer our property. On the other side of the fence was a rabid coyote. That coyote was having a fit, foaming at the mouth, flipping and flopping. When my dad stopped, I said, what are you doing? I'm 10, 11 years old.

I said, what are you doing? He said, well, I got to kill that coyote. I said, why? He said, because it's rabid. You don't want.

You can't let it get in there and get the cows. The cows will get rabies. And so he reaches behind the seat of the truck to get his shotgun, and he's going to kill the rabid coyote. He took his shotgun out the night before to clean it and forgot to put it back in. If that would have been me, I'd have said, I tried.

I didn't have a gun, and I'd have kept on going. My dad reaches in the back of the truck and gets a garden hoe. My dad crawls through the barbed wire fence with a garden hole with a rabid coyote foaming at the mouth. I'm telling you, my daddy raises that garden hoe to hit that coyote mark. When he did, I guess it scared that coyote to its senses.

And that coyote leaped right at my dad with intent and purpose to get him. My dad took one step back, swung that garden hoe. The blade of that garden hoe hit that coyote in the back of the neck. Lodged in his neck. The wooden handle broke.

The handle's in my dad's hand. And that coyote is standing at my dad's feet. Looks at my dad. My dad looks at it. It shivers and falls to its feet.

I said, my daddy is a bad man. I mean, he was just the man. And my dad took a trade that most people just barely scraped to get by in. And my dad did very well. He had 100 men that worked for him when he died.

He was a bricklayer. And he was the hardest working man that I had ever met in my life. And if I heard my dad tell this story once, I heard my dad tell it a hundred times before I was 14 years old and he died. God began to bless him. And my mom.

God began to prosper him. He had work lined up. Jobs were coming in. He had six or seven company trucks. Everything was going well.

And he said one night, he sat down with my mom in the living room, and he said, jane, we're doing good, aren't we? Look at what we've got. We've got six company trucks. I've got jobs lined up for seven months. And my mama did what you ladies are so good at.

She stroked his ego. She said, honey, you're the hardest working man I know. You're my provider. You're the greatest thing. My dad testified that within days of that Conversation trucks began to break down, jobs begin to fall through.

Builders who never got other prices from other bricklayers started calling and getting other be. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. And my dad said. He looked to heaven and said, God, what in the world has happened to my business? What's taking place?

Where is your favor? And he said God spoke to him. And God said, who's doing good, Eugene? Who's the source of all of this stuff that's around you? And my dad said.

Tears began to flow from his face. And he said, God, forgive me for taking. Credit it for the work of your hand. And if you'll put your hand of favor on me again from this day until the day I die, I'll say every good and perfect gift coming from above, from the Father of Lights, in whom there is no variance, no shadow of turning.

Listen to me. If you're in a season of blessing in your life, it's God blessing you. And when God blesses you, you. He doesn't bless you so you can tear down small barns and build bigger barns. He blesses you so you can in turn be a blessing to others, so you can release favor in the lives of others.

You need people that are in front of you in the race and you need people that are behind you in the race. You need people in front of you that can mentor you and that can challenge you and that can encourage you and that can cheer you on. But you need people behind you in the race that you can be that mentor to, that you can. God gives you favor, not to make your life easier. God gives you favor so you can release momentum in those who are running a slower leg than you.

When God blesses you, don't get puffed up and say, I'm doing good. But when God blesses you, say, God, thank you for your provision. Thank you for your hand. Now, how can I make a difference in the life of somebody that is less fortunate? If you believe that's good preaching, clap your hands and shout, Amen.

Stand to your feet with me if you will. Stand to your feet with me and you will.

Be humble. Live your life pointing people to Calvary's cross. Listen, your ministerial team at this church, they model that as good as anybody that I've ever seen in my life. They're clothed in humility. They understand that God has blessed them so they can be a blessing to others.

How many churches meet in this building?

Seven different churches meet in this building where Mark and Jan were. Brad and Morgan are pastors and apostles. Do you Know how rare that is?

Unfortunately, a lot of preachers don't know how to share.

I promise you, the overwhelming majority of preachers that built a building like this in Frisco, Texas, would say, nobody else is coming in here. This is from my preaching. This is for my life. This is for my ministry. But they're constantly looking for ways.

They say, let's have a Spanish congregation, let's have an Asian congregation. Let's pour in to others. They understand that the reason God has blessed them and God has favored them is that they can be a blessing to others, that they model it before you perfectly. Let me I want to pray for you more for the first point of the preaching tonight than the second point of the preaching tonight. I want to pray for you.

If things are going bad and you think they're terrible, you need to to be reminded that they're probably not as bad as you. That's where I'm going to pray for you tonight. But let me prophesy to somebody. God is about to prosper. You.

Let me prophesy to somebody tonight. God is about to lead you from lack to abundance. God is about to sit you down at a table in the very presence of your enemies. He's going to anoint your head with oil. God's about to cause goodness and mercy to get hot on your heels and follow you all the days of your life.

God is about to cause you to be likened unto a tree that's planted by rivers of living water that brings forth his fruit and in his season. I prophesy that your leaf is not going to be withered by droughts. I prophesy that everything you do is going to prosper. I prophesy to you today that you're not going to live the way you've always lived. Things are not going to be the way things have always been.

The wind is blowing, the leaves are rustling, the seasons are changing and prosperity and increase and anointing and favor is about to rest on you supernaturally. And I admonish you as that begins to unfold in your life. Remember, it's not in and of you. It's in him that you live. It's in him that you move.

And it's in him that you have your being. Remember that. Now let me. Let me pray for those of you that are struggling with every head bowed and every eye closed. If you're here and you'd say, preacher, I feel in life today the way you felt in that swim in Panama City.

I feel like the waves are crashing in on me. Maybe it's your marriage, maybe it's your finances, maybe it's your children. Maybe it's peripheral relationships. There's somebody here with a sickness tonight that's causing you to feel like the waves are crashing in on you. If you.

If you're here and you'd say, preacher, I am hanging on to a buoy by the thread. I don't know how I'm going to get out of this mess that I'm in. But tonight you've encouraged me that if I'll just put my left foot in front of my right foot, God is going to help me. If I've preached to you tonight, slip your hand up quickly if I preach to you. One, two, three.

All over the building, hands are going up. Lord, we worship you tonight, O God. O God. Lord, that moment that I felt like I was drowning was just in a raise. It wasn't in the whole of my life.

God, things were good in the whole of my life at that moment. But, God, I've had seasons when it wasn't a race that felt like it was going to drown me. It was the pressures of the day. It was the bills. It was.

It was that my. My sons were struggling. It was. It was that the. That the people that I loved were making bad decisions.

It was. It was because sickness had knocked on my family's door and threatened my wife's life. God, I've been to that place where in life I needed to hang on to a buoy. God, hands have went up all over this building tonight of people saying, I'm struggling and I need to find an anchor that won't slip in the sand. God, I declare you are the anchor that holds.

And, Lord, tonight as we pray for them, I. I pray that it would not just be spiritual calisthenics going through the motion, but I pray that they would grab hold of the anchor. I pray that they would grab hold of your word, God, I pray tonight that truth would be imparted to them that they can do all things through Christ who gives them strength. Now listen, if you lifted your hand, take one step further. Let us pray for you today. If you lifted your hand and said, man, I. I'm holding on to a buoy, preacher, and I need somebody to help me.

Get out of your seat right now and come and stand. Come on. If you raised your hand, come and stand. Sing us a song of worship. Sing us a song of worship.

Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Don't wait.

It doesn't matter if anybody else is drowning with you. You've said you're drowning. Come and get some help. Come and get some help tonight. Hallelujah.

Come on, come on, on, Come on.

Throw your if you're in the altar, throw your hands up to heaven throw your hands up to heaven and say, God, I need your help God, I need your rescue. Sister Don, begin to pray for people. Help me, help me. Pastors, begin to pray for people. Oh, God of heaven and earth.