Changing Your Attitude About Change

What is up? What is up? What is up? CBG, Sunday p.m. edition. So, good to see you. I'm David, I'm one of the pastors here at Church by the Glades. If you are a newbie, if you're a newbie, you're probably very confused. Like, monkeys in church? Monkeys? It's different. I get, listen, listen. We love creativity. We launched a series called Wild Faith. It's going to be kind of an animal theme. There are great animal stories in your Bible, and I want to use the animal parable for the rest of our time together. But monkeys, I like monkeys. Put your hands together if you enjoy monkeys. I like monkeys. Monkeys, of course, they're mammals, they're primates, they're highly intelligent animals God made, and they're very, very adaptive. They're very adaptive. Meaning this, you can find monkeys in all kinds of different environments all around the world. You can find species of monkeys throughout most of Africa, much of Asia, Central, South America, and you also find monkeys in Dania Beach, Florida. There is a colony of wild monkeys in Dania Beach, Florida. Raise your hand if you've heard of that. You've heard of that? Seen this? Yeah. I didn't really know. I heard about that during research for the series. There's a small colony. They've been there for years. They live in the mangroves kind of near the airport. I won't tell you exactly where they are because they want to protect them. They live out there. They're wild. They're not vicious or something. They're not technically an invasive species. They're a non-native species because they don't damage the environment, but we have monkeys. We have monkeys out there. So I told the same story last week at First Baptist, and someone made a phone call and the scientist, the PhD who kind of runs that sanctuary, her name is Dr. Williams. Dr. Williams was waiting for me when the service was done. And she told me about the colony. They run about 35, 36 monkeys. They've been at that same number for years. They live in this very harsh environment. And of course, all I said is, can I meet the monkeys? Can I meet the monkeys? And so she arranged for me and Charlie to go and see the monkeys at this remote location. You can't get there. It's protected. It's private property, but there are wild monkeys living in Dania near the airport surrounded by civilization. Again, a weird environment, but that's where they are. We got monkeys. We got monkeys. And if you're watching online right now, you're like, you got monkeys? Yes, we have monkeys. If you're watching this right now in New Jersey or something, we got animals in Florida. We got some crazy critters in Florida. We put the wild in wildlife in Florida. We have all kinds of animals. I know what you think of Florida. You think of what?

Gators. You think out of gators. And we do have out of gators, but we got more than that. In fact, just a mile or two west of this campus, the church by the glades, you've got in the Everglades, you might find in the same body of water. Yes, you'll find out of gators, but also potentially crocodiles and caimans. We have all that. We have a fish called the bull shark. This shark is so mean. It might bite you. It might eat you. It has the most testosterone of any animal God ever made. And the worst thing is they swim in both salt and freshwater. We have seven different species of venomous snakes in Florida. By the way, I promise as you come back every week for the series, I will put no pics of snakes or spiders on the LEDs. I promise I won't do that because some of you, some of you wouldn't come back for a month if I did that. So, I promise some of y'all are phobic of those animals, but I'll show you some other animals without the creepy animals. But we have those here in Florida. In fact, you might've heard too, speaking of snakes, we had a python problem. We're famous for pythons. They're an invasive species. In fact, you may not know this, that Florida is the capital of North America. It comes to invasive species. It's not just the pythons. We have iguanas everywhere now. And we have lionfish on the reefs and snakeheads in the canals and poisonous buffalo frogs hopping around everywhere. We now have Nile monitor lizards. They grow up to five feet. They're carnivores. They have teeth. We got all these crazy animals. So, yes, yes, we have monkeys. We have monkeys. We have alligators. I have alligators. Actually, you know, Louisiana has more alligators than Florida does. But our gators are tougher, man. They have to fight pythons and bull sharks. We got tough gators down here, but we have monkeys in Dania beach, and they've been there for 80 years. What makes it remarkable is they're so smart. They've adapted to a harsh environment. The monkeys, they're vervet monkeys, green monkeys. They come from Africa. They typically live in environments like a rainforest or mountain forest range, but the mangroves, they need fresh water every day. There's not fresh water. There's brackish water because it's surrounded by development. It's polluted. They need food. There's very little food or forage in the mangroves, but somehow, somehow they've adapted to a difficult environment for 80 years. They've been there for, since the 1940s, these monkeys are actually, they're the offspring now, have been there in Dania adapting. Begs the question, how well do you do adapting to a harsh environment? Change. One thing in life is life is unchanging

So here's my question. How well do you do with change? Because right now if things you like for cool and kind of static give it like 15 minutes and something's gonna change In the room right now. There's people going through all kinds of changes Maybe you're in the room and it's been a professional change a job change You used to work in New York, but your company moved you to South Florida Welcome to the greatest place to live on the planet used to be in New York You're the only New Yorker we have down here. Welcome to the only New Yorker we have down here lots of New Yorkers down here Maybe you've been the same company in the same place for a decade, but there's been a change in management There's new leadership there and you're navigating new leadership out of your business Maybe your parents were the ones had to change Locations and you had to pick up a move in the middle of high school Or maybe it's just that typical changes you graduate middle school and go to high school Graduate high school and go to college or you finish college and now you're adulting which is exciting What a great change, but you're paying your own bills You're a little stressed out Maybe it's a relationship change. Maybe you're dating somebody new and you're excited. Maybe you got dumped and you're sad Maybe you went through a devastating divorce. That's that's a tough change. How about a happy one? How about newlyweds? Is there a newlywed? Anybody newlywed? Anybody married? I heard newlywed. Yeah. Yeah. Where's your wife? You're here by yourself, bro. That's okay. That's okay, right. She's volunteering That works. She's a work. She's where you came to church, but give it up for this brother came to church newlywed by himself That big guy with his muscles back there. Yeah, listen, listen, listen No, it's great. That's great. Like you're like, oh my gosh, I married her. She's awesome. She's great I'm happy but her family have you met her family? Yeah, they live here in Florida. They're a little tough change change No seasons of life You retire Empty nest you have to unretire because you can't afford to be retired You're going through a change God designed us to embrace change

If you choose to have a negative attitude towards change, that's a formula for frustration It's going to come your way. It's going to come your way So how do we you know be smart like a bunch of monkeys and adapt to changes even a difficult environment? Joshua I love the book of joshua joshua when I say three shout the word joshua one two three joshua Joshua chapter five joshua chapter five. I love the book of joshua for many reasons One is one of the first history books in your bible. It's book number six. It's right after the books of moses the book of moses uh, it's after the torah the law the penitent and it kind of It describes the story of god's people finally stepping into the promised land. I love the joshua generation I love this because i'm an aggressive person. I may not not mean about it, but I want to take turf And joshua is a book of advancement. It's a book of promises fulfilled potential realized and it's a book of all kinds of transition So much is changing for god's people during the time of joshua changes like a geographical change They move from the transjordan region of the east cross the jordan river and they step into the promised land That's a change. There's a change in worship Now some things for god's people should never change in worship Worship should all be about our great god and his word. Amen These are the eternal unchanging thing But how we worship and express worship should change should more if you probably figured out this ain't your grandmama's church. That's okay We still teach the bible and we still focus on jesus But worship styles can can change music changes over the years. Here's the change. Uh, uh, They celebrate the passover for the first time in 40 years That's a change and then the biggest change in the book of joshua is a change in leadership In chapter one moses passes away moses goes to heaven that to shake the people of god Why because moses was moses? Moses was the only leader moses ever known had had pastored that congregation for 40 years and moses He does miracles. He's connected with god. He's the lawgiver moses was moses and the new guy. Danny ain't no moses And sadly the people during the time of joshua did not have the book of joshua Or they would know that joshua was going to be amazing. They didn't know yet. He's just a new guy all kinds of changes And so i'm reading the book of joshua two weeks ago and I came to chapter five and there's just some details

It seems like just kind of a passing narrative describing some nuances I found there's so much change embedded in just these four or five verses Read at the beginning verse nine on the screen right now or open up your bible It said the lord said to joshua today. I have rolled away the reproach of egypt from you So the place has been called gilgal. It means it means reproach or roll away Uh, what was rolled away? I think probably the stigma of slavery Now technically they've been set free 40 years before but there's there's being set free and finding a home And they found a home So god says i've taken care of that on the evening of the 14th day of the month While camped at gilgal on the plains of jericho get ready the israeli One more time, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. I like it. It doesn't say they observed the Passover or went through the ritual of the Passover. It says they celebrated. When I say three, shout the word celebrate. One, two, three. I think when God's people come together, it should be a celebration. It should be a joyous occasion, right? We should be passionate and have fun together. Listen, I just think that reflects the general vibe of the Bible. I know there's some moments that are serious and solemn, but overall, the general disposition of the gathering of God's people should be a celebration. Why? Because the Bible says, Christian, you've been saved. You've been redeemed. You've been forgiven. You've been accepted by God. You've been qualified for heaven. Well, you got to do better than that. You've been saved.

You've been set free. God calls you his son, his daughter. We should celebrate that. Man, y'all go watch the dolphins and cheer, and then they lose. God always wins. Amen? So they celebrate the Passover. The day after the Passover, look at verse 11, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land on leavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land. There was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate from the produce, produce of Canaan. There's a change. There's a change. In fact, embedded in these few verses are four new things. You got to know how to navigate new things. Four things change. Take out your phones, take some notes, because if you're not going through a significant change right now, it's coming. It's coming. Turn to your neighbor and say, it's coming. Turn to your neighbor and say, it's coming. Something's going to change. I hope it's a good change. I hope it's a positive change, but nonetheless, it's coming. How do you adapt to change? Number one, there's a new menu. There's a new menu. Where are my foodie people?

Who likes food? Who loves to eat food? Who else? Maybe a little too much like me. I love food. Notice the older you get, that your taste and appetite changes. Things you didn't like as a kid, you like later on. Like I'll use an example. Here's my tribe. Here's my family right now on the screen. These are my monkeys right here. And you see, there's lovely Lisa, and there's my three kids. Two are young adults. I have no pastor, Charlie. Victoria. Victoria is my, I said single daughter. I didn't mean it. She's my, well, she is. Well, she's my only daughter. That's Victoria there. She lives in Nashville. She's in the music industry. And the one on your left, the tall one, he's my youngest, Zane, down here on the front row. Zane's a sophomore in high school. And I think about their taste. Victoria has that metabolism where she can eat anything and stay skinny. I hate that. So not fair, right? You people have that metabolism, you eat like pizza and stuff and stay skinny.

That's her. Zane. Zane is eating me out of house and home right now. That kid, he is so expensive, the food he's eating right now, but he's growing. He's growing. He's tall. He's about six foot two. And so he's tall. So I just think because he's growing, he just eats everything right now. If you haven't seen Zane in two weeks, he's taller. He's taller. That's them now. As little guys, as little guys, when they were small, they had big personalities, but very different diets. Charlie, Charlie has always been a fearless eater. Even as a little kid, he would eat things. He'd eat ethnic foods. He'd eat sushi. He'd eat, you know, we went to a pig roast one time at the home of Mario and Cookie Padrino. They teach a life group here and they had the pig roast, the whole pig, like the tail, the head. Someone dared him at age seven to eat the eye. He ate both of them. Both of them. In high school, his best friends were a bunch of really nice Nigerian kids and he would love when they'd invite him over for dinner. They wouldn't order food from a restaurant. They'd go to a local grocery store and go to the meat department, but they wouldn't buy the stuff you and I buy. They wouldn't buy your chicken breast or chicken thighs or ground beef.

They'd get organ meat. They'd get, yeah, I know, hearts and gizzards and eyeballs and whatever it was, feet, right? And they made a stew and he loved it. He loved that. He was just a kid. Zane, when you were small, your diet, beige, beige. Everything was in the beige. Everything had to be beige or he wouldn't eat it, right? Beige. Think chicken nuggets are what? They're beige. French fries are what? They're beige. Chips are what? They're beige. Only ate beige back then. He's changed now, right? Your diet changes. The diet, the menu for the people of God in Joshua chapter five changes. For 40 years, God had fed his people nothing but manna. What was manna? Manna was provision. Say the word provision. Provision. Provision from God to supernaturally supply his people. Why? The escape bondage back in the book of Exodus, I think it's chapter 16. They escape and there's 2 million Jews. How does God feed these people in the desert so he made manna appear every morning on the ground?

Manna is actually Hebrew wordplay. It's Hebrew for what? What is it? They've never seen it before. Bible describes it like this. It was kind of like flaky bread. It was off-white in color. It tasted like honey and coriander seeds. I have no idea what coriander seeds taste like. And you went out and collected enough for you and your family every single day. God provided from heaven the manna. By the way, you had to go out and get it early in the morning, but God provided the manna. So God provided the manna from heaven. But here in chapter five, it changes. The manna stops, and now the people eat what? The produce of the land. It says they eat grain and bread, and we know there are vineyards and wine and milk and honey they eat. Now they have to farm, they have to farm. They have to work for it, right? God provided in the desert manna, but now they eat the produce. Guess what? God provided the manna. He still provides the produce. Though they're working a little harder for it,

it is still God as the source of provision. God is our provider. But the way we receive the provision, God changes. Let me say it this way. God is the singular source of all good things in life. He's the source. But the way we receive the blessing of God, the resource stays fluid. 40 years, it's manna. Then there's a shift. It's no longer manna. It's the grain and produce of the promised land. Why am I belaboring this? Here's why. Because when you lose your job, you freak out, and I get it. I mean, you're hardworking. You've been at that company for maybe 10 years, and all of a sudden, they eliminate your position. They merge another company, and they downscale, and you're out. Oh my gosh, I worked there 10 years. This is my job, my career. This is the way I buy groceries, the way I feed my family. What do I do? It's a big deal. But don't freak out. The job is the provision. God is your provider.

Our trust is in the provider, not the provision. I'll say it this way. God is the source of the things in our life, the source of all good things. James chapter one, it says all good things and all perfect gifts are coming down from the Father of lights. So if God is good, it's from God. So God is your source. The job is the resource. God never promises the resource. He promises the source. Stay with me. This resource might change. Jobs are fluid. Careers are fluid. Christians, we don't say, I trust in my job. My faith is in my company. No, I trust in my God. Now, I value my job. I hope to keep my job. If I lose my job and I'm willing to work, God promises he'll provide for me. He didn't promise you the job. He promised you the provision. And Philippians chapter four says, and my God will meet all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. God promised you provision. He'll change the way he provides.

So don't freak out. Go get yourself a new job. Freshen up your resume. Get a headhunter. If you're willing to work, if you're willing to work, God says I'll provide. Now, if you don't work, can't help you. But if you're willing to work, and it might be you have to work at a job that's not the ideal job, but you look for the ideal job, just do something, keep yourself busy. Right, do something, because God values work. If you watch it online, they're staring at me. I mean this, Home Depot is hiring all the time. Do something, do something, do something. The menu changes, but the menu gets better. It's gonna require a new strategy. In fact, how about this, here's another new. A new economy, a new economy, a new economy. Hear my disclaimer. This is not a political statement. Not a condemnation or a recommendation. I just wanna note the economy has shifted in recent months. I mean, some things nationally, we have changed our relationship with some international trade partners in recent months. There've been changes in policy towards immigration and migrant workers have changed, all that, and Christians, you freak out, don't freak out. God's in control.

God's your provider. And if you're smart, if you're smart, you can navigate with success a new economy. In chapter five, these verses, there's a shift in the Israelite economy that is seismic. They go from a manna-based economy to a farming-based economy, right? Now guess what, one gets more complicated. Manna-based economy is pretty straightforward, it's pretty simple, almost anyone can do it. There's like one rule to the manna-based economy. Go and get it. God provides it, it's there on the ground every single morning. You just take your container and you faithfully go out and God provides the food for you and your family. It rains down for heaven. So just go and get it, go and get it. Anyone can do it. By the way, you had to do it in the morning. Do I have any morning people here in the house? Woo! Some of y'all are lying because you have the nighttime service. Anyways, that's fine, that's fine. Keep coming to this, sir, that's good, that's good. That was the only rule. You had to get up and retrieve it before it evaporated with the dew. So if you slept in or your alarm didn't go off,

guess what, you just didn't eat that day. By the way, sidebar, sidebar, not part of the sermon, this will help somebody. I love my staff at this church. I have this incredible staff. If you see the staff at Church by the Glades or First Baptist, the one vibe you'll see is they're young. We have a young, young team. I'm the token person of my age. They're young, and by the way, I don't hire young and dumb. I hire young and smart. And they're so talented and so passionate. Every time, every once in a while, I meet one of our people, a young person who's chronically late, they're late, and they'll say this to me, hey, pastor, I just, I just can't get up in the morning. I just can't, you know, it's my thing. I just can't wake up. I'm like, shut up. You're smart. You're talented. No need to be late. You can do this. Because on the eighth day, God created the iPhone. Now on the iPhone, there's an alarm setting. You set one alarm, two alarms. Make sure it's loud, loud. Make sure it's charged up.

You'll be fine. If you still can't wake up, again, this is not part of the sermon. This is for somebody, if you're always late for work, I got this off for $29 on Amazon. You can buy this alarm clock, set this along with your iPhone. It has wheels, it's called Clocky. And you set the time, you make it charge, and you don't put it on the nightstand, you put it on the floor, and it goes off in the morning, and then it runs around your room. And you have to go chase it, get a bed, and chase it, chase it to turn it off. That will wake you up. Amen? Be on time, be early. Come on, you can do that. Because if you slept in, oh, I had a hard night, I didn't sleep good, you just missed the manna and you went hungry. But the farming-based economy is more complex. Farming-based economy requires strategies, innovation, learning, trial and error, intentionality. You had to be smarter to be successful after Joshua chapter five. It's no longer God providing by just having to be there. You had to go and earn it, make it happen, had to grind, right?

God gave you all those abilities, but you had to do your part as well. So I was just thinking about this as far as application for our church, because you're probably not a farmer. I thought, you know, if I had a dream for our church, my dream would not be that we'd be the richest church in America. There's some churches that have a lot of wealthy people, and that church tends to have a big reserve, and great facilities. And we're blessed, and we have a few wealthy people in the congregation, but I actually think we have more single moms working two jobs just to get by, and everything in between. I think we have everything right here. I don't know, I just judge you based on your car as you drive up in, all right? I've got rich people, poor people, everything in between. So we'll never be the richest church in America, that's okay, but I would love for this to be our reputation. The Church by the Glades is the smartest church when it comes to how they manage God's money. Yes. You make a lot or a little, I pray that God would give you wisdom on how to manage, because guess what? Most Americans do not manage their money very well. That's what we offer, financial, peace, university.

There are people in the lobby who can help sign you up. It's incredible, it's not. It's nine weeks, it's one hour every week. We provide childcare. There are two sessions coming up. It starts this week. I'm telling you, half this room needs to sign up for financial peace. We will not judge you, make you feel bad. We show you how to build a budget, how to track your spending, how to build wealth, how to invest, and especially how to deal with debt. Because if you're in debt right now, if you're spending 105% of your income, you're just a good American. We do this as a nation. And so if you're feeling the stress that you have two mortgage payments or a rent payment you can't handle, you have a car payment that's eating your lunch, you have a student loan, you have maxed out credit cards, you're feeling the pressure, let us show you the plan how to dig out. We've had people go through financial peace every semester. They pay off tens of thousands of dollars of consumer debt. In fact, I want to tie you this way. If you ask your phone for someone, a couple or individual going through the nine weeks of financial peace, how much money do they come out ahead?

Between savings they incur in the nine weeks and paying off debt, how much do they come ahead? On average in America, $5,700. That's just in the nine weeks. The momentum after nine weeks is strong. The only people clapping in the room right now are people in the front row and half of them work for me. $5,700 is a lot of money. It's a lot of money. In fact, I want to demonstrate how much money that is. Let me pick a volunteer, let me pick a volunteer. Really, if I pick you, it's not a volunteer, but I'll pretend like it is. Cassidy, will you come help me give it for Cassidy? Cassidy's one of our great leaders. She's awesome, one of our great leaders. And I pick Cassidy because Cassidy runs half the church. You stand right there on that side of that table, Cassidy. She does, she's a great organizer, a great leader, a great communicator, but she helps to run financial peace. So this is Cassidy, $5,700. And let's pretend I want to give this to you. Let's roll money. So I want to give you, because this is how much you come out ahead on average during the nine weeks. Look how much. How much? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,

nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, okay. Yeah, yeah, I want you, pick it up, pick it up, hold that in your hands. Most of our young people, if I remember people never held that much money in their hands, right? That's crazy. Show them, no, get it all, pick it all up, pick it all up, pick it up, get it, get it, get it, get it. I don't even know how to hold it. Isn't that crazy? Oh, by the way, I shorted you $100, that's 56. Smaller bills, 56, 20, 40, 60, 80. Again, you don't get to keep this, it's too much money. Okay, there's the rest for nine weeks. That's how much people come out ahead, nine weeks. Anybody in the room who would not enjoy, couldn't use that, they'll go, oh, but it's nine weeks. That's $644 an hour. I bet you don't make that. That's how much you come out ahead. Oh, by the way, we charge you $25 for expenses. So can I have this one back and the five back? All right, there we go. Do you still feel like you came out ahead? Of course you did. Give it up for Cassidy, leave that money right there, Cassidy. Thank you, Uzziah, thank you so much. I mean, please don't take a picture

of your pastor holding all this money. Looks weird. It's a lot of money. This is the average. You're probably better than average. Everyone take out their phone. Do not take my picture. I'll put the QR code back on the screen. Everyone, everyone take out your phone. Take out, everyone take out your phone, please. Everyone take out your phone. If you're not even gonna do it, just pretend. Take out your phone, take out your phone. Take a picture. It starts, it's Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday. You go to the Sunday classes too, you just missed the first session. If you don't do this, don't you ever ask God to bless you financially. Because God said, here's your blessing. Here's your blessing. Here's the key to your future. Here's what you do. Again, the economy of farming, you had part to do. You had to grind a little bit. Had to learn new strategies. We will show you the strategies. It is not a nine week course on how to give to the church. Not at all. In fact, I know some of you guys would give to the church

if you knew how to, but it's not about that. I just, as your pastor, I hate seeing brokenness and dysfunction anywhere in your life. I hate it in your marriages. I hate it in your spiritual life. I hate it in your addictions. And I hate the pressure some of you guys feel all the time with money. Financial peace. Get yourself free. Amen, amen. Be smart. Changing economies require intelligence. Monkeys are smart. Monkeys are smart. Getting ready for this, I found a story in the Wall Street Journal about a bunch of monkeys in Indonesia. They're wild, but they kind of hang out at a temple and they're a tourist attraction. Tourists come to take their pictures. They get close. The monkeys, you don't want to touch them because they're wild monkeys. But the monkeys have a con. They have a little monkey scam going where they will steal things from people. They'll steal like, you know, the camera from your hand or the glasses from your purse.

And they don't take the things to keep them. They take things to barter for treats. Give them some food, they'll give you back your stuff. And these monkeys are so smart, they figured out in recent years the value of items. Like a plastic hair clip, small treat. Take someone's iPhone, big treat. Be smarter than a monkey. The value of money. Know how to handle money. Build wealth. All three of my kids have 401ks going already. You gotta learn the value of that stuff. I'll wrap this up. New, new, new. A couple things real quickly. There are new enemies. There's new enemies in the promised land. And the devil's not going to sit back and watch you waltz into God's promised land. He will come hard against you. I know the big enemy was Pharaoh and the Egyptians. But man, they're done in the first part of Exodus. And that bondage is broken. But there's new haters in the promised land. Just because you got saved, all your problems don't go away. There are Philistines and there are Canaanites and Amalekites and Amorites and Edomites and cellulites. All these bad guys.

Walls of Jericho. Canaanite kings, strongholds, their armies. Vicious people, by the way. Cruel people, evil people groups. But sometimes with the enemy or the problem, you see the opportunity. New enemies, new opportunities. We wouldn't know that David was remarkable and brave had not Goliath showed up. He's the problem. We wouldn't know that Joshua was an amazing, faithful leader unless the walls of Jericho was a barrier between the people of God and their blessing. We wouldn't know that God can rescue in powerful ways had Daniel not faced the lion's den in the Babylonian captivity. That problem is the dark and difficult backdrop where God paints. The story of his hero, he or she in bold relief. So you're in a situation right now and it's not what you would choose. It's difficult, it's been a change. You didn't script, guess what? Look for God's opportunity in it. Sometimes you gotta change a few things, it's okay. Praise Jesus, praise Jesus, praise Jesus. Let's celebrate because college football is back. College football is back, yes, college. Pro football too, but I love the college game and I love the Florida schools.

I like the Seminoles and I like the Gators, that's my team right there, I love the U. And the U are playing, man, they're playing well, but we got a new quarterback, we had a quarterback, Carson Beck. He's new to us, he played for Georgia last year, entered the transfer portal. Now some college fans don't like the portal. I like the portal, but these guys change teams. Coaches do it all the time, ADs do it all the time. So he was at Georgia. He was thought to be one of the best quarterbacks in the country back in 2024, but he had a tough season. Didn't play terrible, but Georgia wasn't Georgia. Georgia's a big SEC power, their line wasn't as good, their receivers weren't as good, and quarter's a very synergistic position. And so he got a lot of heat and pressure, this young man. So he entered the portal, he came to Miami. It's just three games, but so far, old man, he's playing good. He exploited the opportunity, embedded it in a change. Make everyone close to home because you're probably not a five-star high school recruit playing quarterback for the U. If you know my wife, Lisa does many things well. Lisa does many things well. She's funny, she tells stories well. She's a great mom, she's a great wife,

but she's an amazing friend. If you're fortunate enough to have Lisa Hughes to be your friend, you're blessed. She's such a good friend, she will encourage you, she's unselfish, she'll show up for you. She's a pit bull, she's so loyal. And I wonder where her skillset from being such a great friend came from. And my theory is this, when she was a junior in high school, her dad took a job, they left Michigan and came to Miami. In Michigan, she had a friend group and she was a cheerleader. She knew how to dress to be cool in Michigan. All of a sudden, she comes to the 305 and she doesn't know what to wear, doesn't know how to wear her hair. She's an outsider, doesn't have friends. She's not a cheerleader anymore. She said it was kind of lonely and hard. She's always trying to break into the cool group. It didn't happen. I think God used that difficult change to build the relationship muscle into her life that I see her now being such a brilliant friend to people. She's so good to people who are on the outside and lonely because she's been there. So maybe, maybe this change is so tough. You didn't choose this change. Someone else made this change happen. Your parents, your spouse cheated on you.

Guess what? Let God work in this season. If nothing else, you and God fall in love. You and God, let God refine your character, get you ready for the next season. Be smart. There's always opportunity embedded in every single change. And fourth and finally, new freedom, new freedom. When I say three, shout the word freedom. One, two, three. Freedom. You wonder what God's agenda is for your life? Oh, God loves to emancipate people. I love what King Jesus said in John 38, verse six. As the Son has set you free, you'll be free indeed. That's what God wants for you. I think the Bible is all about commandments and restrictions. No, God wants to set you free. How every way a person can be set free. He wants to free you up spiritually. He wants to free you up eternally. He wants to free you up relationally. He wants to free you up potentially. He wants to free you up financially when the Son has set free. But you gotta fight for your freedom. The Joshua generation has haters and Canaanites and battles on the walls of Jericho. They gotta fight for their freedom. They gotta see their daddies and their moms,

they died in the desert due to disbelief. Their grandparents were slaves in Egypt. They're the first generation to walk in promise and walk in freedom, but freedom is never easy. People who benefit from your bondage will not grant you your emancipation without a struggle. You gotta fight and work and it's a change. Will you embrace change in your life? Because freedom is a change. So how did monkeys get to Dania Beach and stay there for 80 years? Well, here's the answer, here's the answer. Back in the 1930s, the Roosevelt family from Fort Lauderdale decided to have, create a tourist attraction. It was called the Dania Chimpanzee Farm and tourists came to see the monkeys, the apes they imported from all over the world. Now they had a side hustle. They sold their apes to the medical trade for testing and they loved vervet monkeys. They're not aggressive, they're wild, but they're kind of easy, nice monkey. They had a bunch of vervet monkeys they would use and then ship off to the testing labs. Well, anyways, vervets are smart and one little vervet back in 1948 watched her handler latch and unlatch her cage, latch and unlatch her cage and she watched and she watched and they're smart and they have great dexterity in their little monkey fingers

and when the handler wasn't looking, she opened the cage and heard about 50 of her buddies, they escaped, they found their freedom. Now they recaptured all but 12. How'd the 12 get away? went to the mangroves. A mangrove is a tough environment for a monkey. The mangrove doesn't have fresh water. The mangrove has brackish water. That's not good for a monkey. It's a harsh environment. There's not a lot of food. It's a harsh environment. Not a lot of forage. It's a harsh environment. Guess what? The mangroves, it was a hard place to catch a fast little monkey. They're smart and they found their freedom. They use the environment to their advantage. See, you resist change. You resist, don't resist change. You resist change to your own peril. Resisting, resenting change is a formula for self-sabotage. I think, I think God made us for change. I think way back in the beginning, first part of Genesis, you think of if Adam hadn't received that first piece of apple pie from Eve, we'd all be still living in the garden, right? Just wearing fig leaf and walking around eating vegan all the time. No! When God told Adam, I give you dominion over the earth and the animals, that was God saying, go out and change things, Adam. You have authority. Go and fit things, create things, build things, make things, bring about change. I designed you for change. Stop freaking out about change. Some of you are so afraid of change. I'm so worried about retirement. Don't worry about retirement. Get ready for it. I'm freaked out about, oh, college, college is coming up. Prepare for college. AI, AI is going to take my job. Once you learn about AI, use AI. Don't be afraid of change, Christian. Press into it. The gospel is transformative. God in Romans says we're renewed and transformed by the renewal of our mind. God designed you to change and grow and get better. So, animals are the metaphor. These monkeys are not invasive. They're not natural, but there are invasive species. And we say it's a bad thing, and it is. Pythons are problematic. Iguanas are everywhere. But if I can flip the script here at the end, maybe instead of hating on invasive species, maybe we should stop for just a moment and learn from them. How did all those invasive species get to Florida? Cages and containers. And they got themselves free. And they find themselves in a new environment, and they exploited it. They found opportunities. They found new food. They began to dominate.

Christians, we're a new spiritual species. We are spiritual aliens. And God left us in this broken world. Why? Not to run from it, but to dominate with love and power. God says you can do all things through Jesus Christ, who is your strength. The Bible says you're more than a conqueror through Christ who loves you. The Bible says you are the head and not the tail. God made you to exploit change. Look for opportunities. Be unafraid. Press into change in Jesus' name. Father God, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the power of your Word, for the power of your people. Sometimes the enemy, he cons us. He steals away opportunities because we're afraid that something's new. God, you make people new all the time. We are new creations through Jesus Christ. Help us to embrace the new. Help us to charge into change that God, you do great things in our life. That's our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.