Engraved on Your Spirit

So let's give Glen Gould a big round of applause. Thanks, Dave. Appreciate it. Is the camera running? It is running. Oh, okay. You mean you got the joke on camera? I did, although you were standing over there, so it may not work. Good morning. Morning. How's everybody? Good. Come on, be honest. How's everybody? Good. Good, good, good. What are we doing here? 'Cause I wanna feel good. There you go, there you go. No, no, this is a good place to feel good. So don't hesitate, feel good. But also let's remember that we're here to work with each other, help each other. And so sometimes that takes just being honest. And if you're not good today, don't tell people you are. Tell 'em, hey, look, you know, especially in this room, I need some help. I'm struggling a little bit. But I have had the pleasure of speaking here a number of times, as Dave has said. How many of you have been here when I've spoken before? Good, good, okay, so if I say something you've already heard, you'll bear with me. It's hard after you've done it 6 or 7 times to go, okay, well, what do I do that's new? And every once in a while you find out you're doing the same old thing over and over, and so I read Dave's blog last night. How many of you have read Dave's blog about Bill Belichick getting fired? If you don't even know who Bill Belichick is, it's still worth the read. It's a very interesting story. And so I encourage you to read that. And we're going to talk a little bit about that today. But what we're going to talk about today is having something engraved on your spirit. And so to that end— oh, look, I've already messed up the technology. There we go. So I found this verse. It's in Isaiah 49:16. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me. Would y'all join me in prayer real quick? Father God, thank you today for, for you and for these people in this room, these leaders who are here with an opportunity to take on the next assignment in their lives, being leaders in new companies and helping grow the communities that they're going to be involved in. Lord, as I speak to them today, I would pray that these would be your words, that whatever you have to say would come through me and to the right person at the right time. We know, Lord, that your timing is perfect, and that's what we're expecting today. Lord, there are many people in the room that are hurting a little bit today, and we want to make sure that your grace and your comfort comes through to them. And we know that you have us engraved in the palms of your hands. Thank you for today. Thank you for these people. Thank you for the opportunity to be with them. And Lord, just thank you for everything you do for us. In your name we pray. Amen. So engraved on the palms of his hands. Now this was a verse, and it was talking about when the Israelites were in, were in captivity, and his promise to restore them. And I'm not a biblical scholar. I will tell you that it's a darn good book. If you haven't read it, you ought to, and you ought to read it on a regular basis. I don't read it nearly enough, but that's maybe one of the reasons why I get to come to Job Seekers, because I get reminded to go back and refer to some of the passages that have meant something to me in my life. But this thing about being engraved, I mean, God was telling the people of Israel essentially, there's no way I could forget you. I've engraved you in the palms of my hands. I mean, imagine that if you will. And I'm gonna go backward— I hope I can pull this off— to this picture right here. These palms are— and it's actually on the wrists here, you can see, let go, let God. They're the palms of my nephew. My nephew had a very interesting youth. I'll just put it like that. And if you can't see it, it says "let go" and his hand is clenched, and the other hand is open and it says "let God." And I get emotional about it because he's a good kid. He's not a kid anymore, he's a fine young man, but he had a very, very interesting Youth, heck, right from birth all the way through until today, you know. And the interesting thing about that is, is that haven't we all? I mean, really, at the end of the day, haven't we all really had a lot of things to overcome and challenges that we've had to face? I mean, it's very, very challenging sometimes in life. And so, the encouragement is, is then he put this on his palms to remember that God has him. That he can let go and he can let God handle the things that only God can handle. And sometimes I think we spend our time trying to handle those things that God could handle. So I want to remind you of that. I want to remind you that as we go through the day today and as you're talking— as we're talking today, think about the things that are engraved on you. We're gonna talk about how I mean— what I mean by that right here. I talked about the blog that Dave had. How many of you know Bill Belichick? He's the coach of the New England Patriots. They just lost 2 weeks ago to the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore Ravens were originally the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland Browns were owned by Art Modell, and Art Modell fired Bill Belichick after, I think, 5 seasons, was it? And it was pretty much assumed that Bill Belichick was a lost cause. He was not gonna be a great coach. And, you know, there's some who might argue that he may be the best coach that ever lived. He's certainly had unsurpassed success with the New England Patriots, with Tom Brady. Just an amazing, amazing story. He's been in, I think it's 3 or 5 Super Bowls. They've won 3 of them. They've been in, you know, championship games almost every year that they've been together. And imagine what was engraved on his heart or on Bill Belichick when he got fired. And I'm sure that some of you probably, you know, I don't know, maybe not everybody got fired. Maybe some of you got reassigned or downsized, or some of you may have chosen to see the writing on the wall and moved on. But that thing that happens when, when that disconnect occurs, what gets engraved on you is very, very important because if you're carrying around the wrong thing, you really could have some problems. But Bill Belichick obviously did a pretty good job of overcoming what was engraved on his heart. This is Joe Flacco of those same Baltimore Ravens. It's kind of interesting that they have the little Art logo right there on his jersey. Art Modell died this past year, and so they engraved, if you will, on their jersey, Art, to remember who he was and what he meant to the team. I don't know, but I got to wonder, because last year the Patriots beat the Ravens in the playoff game to go to the Super Bowl. This year they lost. I've got to wonder if Art engraved on their jerseys had anything to do with it? What do you think? I mean, do you think maybe that was just enough to push them through? Or do you think maybe this man was? That's Ray Lewis. He's announced he was going to retire this year. He had a— for most people of any age, a near career-ending injury with his arm and was able to come back this year and play in the final game of the season, the playoff games, and He has been an inspiration to the team. So, you know, they've got Art engraved on them, they've got Ray Lewis engraved on them, and I can tell you this, there's more power when whatever it is is with you. I mean, imagine if you would, now think about this for a second, you've been told, some of you believe it hopefully, that God has not left you, he will not forsake you. Imagine if you would, on every play you run today, Jesus is right there with you. Come on, man! Imagine he walks through that door when you're going in for that interview and he's like Ray Lewis was, right? I mean, come on, think about it. He's, "I'm fired up, baby! I'm taking this one!" And he's trying to coach you along. Well, I will tell you, there's far more power with you if he's with you. If you bring him with you, I can promise you that. Bitter loss, same opponent as I said, but this time they turned it around and it was a victory, the Ravens did. Now I gotta tell you, it was bitter for me. I'm a New England Patriots fan, I'll admit it. I saw the perfect Super Bowl game this year, New England, Atlanta, boy, it was just great. And neither one came true for me, but think about that. They were able to take that bitter loss last year And most people will go into that game and they will remember the failure. And they did too. But they used that failure as a powerful message to encourage them on to succeed. And they brought Ray Lewis along with them. And for those of you who don't know the Ray Lewis story, you know, there are a lot of people who just think that he shouldn't even be allowed to play and things that happened in Buckhead 10, 15 years ago. Our lives are about redemption, and if you look at his life, he has redeemed himself. So I think that, uh, that should be brought through as well. So what might be holding you back? What might you be carrying along with you? Um, are you remembering the failure? I mean, certainly some of you have had a long time— every single day that you go out there without a job, it's a reminder, "I'm jobless." Every single day it's a reminder, "I didn't get it done today." And it's hard. But you have to remember that you have with you, you know, it could be negative power you're carrying around. I will tell you this, there is an enemy. His name is Satan, and he is loving the opportunity of making God's followers have a bad time. Because when we lose focus of God, by golly, he's there to make us focus on something else. I've got a friend out in Texas who tells me if you're not running into Satan on a regular basis, You're probably running in the same direction. So, um, I just want to encourage you that if you're having a difficult time right now, that may not be an indication you're going the wrong way. It may be an indication you're headed the right way. Satan is trying to hold you back, but don't carry that negative energy around with you. I want to encourage you to carry God around with you. He is with you. He will not forsake you. I want to encourage you that you've got to remember that if you carry him into every interview, if you carry him into every phone call, If you carry him into every interaction you have for networking, I promise you he is with you and he can carry you just like Ray Lewis carried the Baltimore Ravens this past week. So what is engraved on your spirit? That's the big question for today. Did you walk in here being reminded you're jobless? Because I'm at Job Seekers. Or did you walk in here today with the idea that today's, today's the day I meet the right person at the right time at the right place because God has ordained it? And he's with me, and I'm not gonna forget that he's with me every single day. I'm not, I'm not gonna tell you go out and have "Let Go, Let God" engraved on your wrist. That may not be for you, but it was for my nephew. So, I want to leave you with this thought. It's from Deuteronomy 31:6, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you. He will never forsake you nor leave you." I got a little backwards there, but you got the message. The problem is this: most of us are wrapped up in ourselves. There's a saying that says that there's no smaller package than the package of you wrapped up all in yourself. And I can promise you this: if you will let go of what is holding you back, let God handle that. I, I I've got a story to end all stories about losing a job that was so unfair and just so wrong, and I can tell you the day everything changed was the day that God said to me, "Son, I've told you, you've gotta let that go." And I actually listened. It was the day everything changed. I wanted to be bitter, I wanted to be selfish, I wanted to remember that I was a failure. It was easier for me to continue on as a failure than it was for me to face the facts that I hadn't let go of it. And if I did and let him do it, I don't have to get all the glory. As a matter of fact, I don't need any of it. He does. That's what we're here for, to bring him glory. So I want to encourage you today, don't forget to bring God with you in every interaction you do today. And I want to thank you for hearing me today and hope you have a fantastic day. Dave.