Beneath The Waters

I realize right here at the start that I am speaking to 3 different types of people tonight…

Type 1: 2019 has been the greatest year of your life! Everything has come together!

Type 2: 2019 has been hard work and you have had to persevere but you have worked and even if you are not seeing the reward for your hard work you know it is coming… Some of you 2019 has been a year of work

Type 3: I know that tonight I may be speaking to some people and 2019 has been a disaster and you are standing here wondering is anything good going to come out of my situation.

POINT- We all go through these 3 seasons. We go through the season of harvest when we see the reward for our perseverance. We go through the season of planting, things might not seem ideal and things might not go the way we want but we work hard anyway, we stay faithful. Then there is the season when we are looking for a place to grow, we are looking for something good to come out of the chaos and it seems like everywhere we look is not suitable for growth.

(ESV) — 1 Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.

(ESV) — 4 He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

When I first read this verse I was thinking this is ridiculous… Soggy bread is the worst.

KEY- The Hebrew word for bread and grain are the same and so what he was saying was cast your grain (seeds) on the waters, for you will find it after many days.

I understand some of you are hearing this and thinking that still does not make sense to me cause why are you wasting grain???

You need to understand this cultural detail to understand this verse, and for those that get this message tonight are going to walk into 2020 not just with a fresh perspective but with some kick the devil in the teeth holy spirit perseverance…

In Egypt every year the Nile river would flood up into the farming land. There were 2 ways that you could deal with this nuisance, you could wait for the waters to recede and then plant your grain; although at that point you are well past the ideal time to plant and you will harvest not that much… The other option the farmers had was to ignore the fact that their farms were flooded and cast seed onto the flooded banks anyway…

Well it turns out that when they would throw seed onto the flooded banks of the river there would come a day when the water would recede back to where it belongs, and there in the place that looked like it was impossible to grow anything would be sprouts of grain coming out of the ground… It turns out that the flooded sections of farmland produced bigger and better faster growing crops than anywhere else on their farm.

Why are you telling us how to farm in Egypt???

Some of you are desperate to change, desperate to grow, desperate for something new, and your surroundings feel inhabitable. Yes I am talking to you the one that has lost count how many times you cried yourself to sleep tonight as the waters of dispare have invaded… Yeah I’m talking to you, the cynic who believes nothing can change as the waters of anger and resentment have come over your head… Yeah I’m talking to you the one popping pills you buy from that person you call a friend, yeah I’m talking you to you the one who feels the need to hurt yourself just to feel anything…

To the one who is looking at year 2019 and you feel like nothing good can come from this season I’m here to serve an eviction notice to doubt, depression, anxiety, fear, unforgiveness, unresolved problems… You may have been tolerated in 2019 but not in 2020!

You might be sitting there thinking Zach how can you have so much hope right now, you do not understand… I may not understand everything but I understand this, the waters of sorrow and pain that are resting in the place you want to grow won’t stay there forever, the waters will recede and when they do will there be anything growing there?

MAIN POINT- Just because you can’t see your promise, and just because you can’t see the growth does not mean it is not there. When you can’t see the promise understand this, It’s just beneath the water.

The power of the flood...

1. The Flood Shows Me Who I Am.

(ESV) — 1 Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.

(ESV) — 4 He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

Isn’t it funny how when there is something you hate it is NEVER a good time to do it…

Time to do your homework, I just got home from school I just need a short break - It’s almost dinner I need to set the table - I just ate I need to burn this food off in the gym…

But a friend could call you and ask you to hop on fortnite and you’d be there in seconds…

ILLUSTRATION- Tolled Julian to read James and next time I saw him I asked him if he read it, he said I couldnt remember if you said to read James or said so which one did you read and he said neither.

ILLUSTRATION- My dad wanted to take his dad out for a drive into town, but my grandfather replied, “I can’t.” “Why not?” my dad said. “I have a doctors appointment. When is your doctors appointment? It is tomorrow morning.

POINT- Stop waiting for everything to fall into place before you walk out your purpose.

I know there are some of you who don’t want to worship because you feel like you can’t until you beat the addiction…

Planters are going to plant, dreamers are going to dream, lovers are going to love, worshipers are going to worship, world changers are going to change the world, preachers are going to preach, workers and going to work, peace makers will make peace, fighters are going to fight, thirsty people will drink, hungry people are going to eat!!

POINT- My environment won’t define me, my actions will define me!

POINT- In year 2020 it’s time to stop waiting to become and it’s time to just start doing it.

(ESV) — 4 He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

2. The Flood Causes Me To Grow.

(ESV) — 1 Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.

POINT- Is it possible that the thing you have been complaining about in 2019 is the very thing that God wanted to use to complete you in 2019.

I wonder what it would feel like as a young farmer throwing fistfuls of valuable grain into the flooded waters… I know for some of you God is telling you to plant in 2020 and you have been waiting for the waters to recede first, you have been waiting for things to be ideal… Think about this though, the flooded farmland became valuable because that was the thing that caused their crops to grow better…

(NLT) — 2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

KEY- Understand that the grain didn’t start growing after the waters receded, it was growing the moment it hit soil beneath the waters.

POINT- The flood

POINT- Your opportunity doesn’t start when everything looks good around you, it starts when you plant. When you love when you don’t feel loved, when you serve when your pride says they should serve you, when you surrender when you want to do it your way.

ILLUSTRATION- Sitting next to a bigger lady on an airplane coming home from Zimbabwe just wishing I had the whole row to myself…

CHALLENGE- Is there a young person with the eyes to see their set backs as set ups, is there someone who is not afraid of the flooded waters that will get out even in the discomfort

3. The Flood Cause My Environment to Change

ILLUSTRATION- I had a student who was always trying to get out of his chores… His name may or may not have been Andrew Judd. One day he was asking me to pick him up and I asked him if he had chores he said yeah thats why he wanted me to pick him up… I said let me help you with some of them, so I show up and we were breaking up hard ground where the grass wasn’t growing so we could lay down seed, but before we could put the seed down we had to break up the hard ground… We got to one spot and it was like we were trying to break up rock, so Andrew got a bucket of water and poured it on the ground then we were able to break through…

The water changed the very nature of the ground beneath it… In a way it almost acted like a tiller and what was once hard ground and clay became soft… This allowed the seed to sink deep into the ground. Without the flood you would have had to work hard to break up the ground to plant the seed.

KEY POINT- Often times its in the places that we expereince our greatest pain and struggle is the same place that God would desire for you to have your greatest wins and victories.

Conclusion…

2019 is coming to an end and 2020 is just minutes away… You can’t control the flood, you can’t control the discomfort… You can control if you will plant, if you will grow, if you will get stronger!

Just because you can’t see your promise does not mean it is there, if you plant you will harvest.

Type 1: 2019 has been the greatest year of your life! Everything has come together!

Type 2: 2019 has been hard work and you have had to persevere but you have worked and even if you are not seeing the reward for your hard work you know it is coming… Some of you 2019 has been a year of work

Type 3: I know that tonight I may be speaking to some people and 2019 has been a disaster and you are standing here wondering is anything good going to come out of my situation.

ILLUSTRATION-