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This Is Why Life Feels Messy · More Than Before

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  This is more than before with Nathan Cook.
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  Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of More Than.
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  Before I am Nathan Cook, I'm excited to spend a little bit of
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  time with you. Today might seem a little bit
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  different because I'm coming in hot.
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  And this is just me and you spend.
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  A little bit of time together and I want to share with you a
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  little. Bit of what I've been going
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  through, what I've been. Going through over the past
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  couple months, I've been frustrated.
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  I've been frustrated with life. Because I'm.
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  Working my coaching job, my career, I'm looking for speaking
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  engagements. I'm working on the podcast.
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  I have my family, I've got my 4 kids I'm I'm helping to
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  homeschool them with my. Wife I'm.
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  Trying to make sure she's taking care of that, she's not going
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  crazy. She's working her job full time.
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  And then we have all of these other things in life going on.
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  And it's, it feels like I'm in over my head.
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  A lot of the time I feel like I'm in over my head.
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  There's been nights where I don't really have the energy to
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  continue to keep going on. And I go out and the sun is
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  starting to set and I just sit in my chair with my wife next to
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  me. And I'm, I'm looking outgoing,
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  OK, God, Like, I don't know, Like you're going to have to do
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  something here because I am just tired.
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  And maybe you feel that way too. Maybe you look around in your
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  life feels like a complete mess. Like even just a moment ago my
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  wife texted me and she's like, hey, don't forget that the trash
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  needs to go out today. And I'm like, Oh yeah, there's
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  there's one more thing that I need to take care of.
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  There's one more thing in life. Can I just encourage you that?
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  If you have stuff that seems really messy in your life, that
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  means God's still working in your life.
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  That means that you have something going for you right
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  now. And here's why I say that in my
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  devotions. I I veered off from where I have
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  been recently. I've been reading through the
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  book of Exodus, actually just finished Genesis, but now I'm
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  going through Exodus, which is a great book.
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  And for some reason I decided to go to the Proverbs and I went to
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  Proverbs 14. And as I was reading, I was
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  reading Proverbs. 14 verse. 4 Where there are no oxen, the
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  stalls are clean, but much is produced by the strength of an
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  ox. You see, I read that a couple
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  days ago and it's been, it's been echoing in my mind, it's
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  been going. Back and.
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  Forth throughout my day as a reminder that in my life the
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  reason there is a mess is because I have oxen.
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  I've got 4 little kids, they make a mess.
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  But they're producing things. In their life.
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  My marriage is messy sometimes, a lot of the times.
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  And guess what? That whole mess of marriage.
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  It's producing. Something it's making something
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  the mess is in our life if we're.
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  Working through them before working to improve them they.
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  Produce something in our life, much like it says here in verse
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  4, but. Much is.
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  Produced by the strength of an ox.
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  There are a lot of things in your life that you're.
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  Getting right now, there's a lot of trials.
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  There's a lot of. Frustrations that.
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  You might have. That you're getting it is
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  producing strength. In you.
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  It's producing perseverance. You know, I remember early on in
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  my marriage, Willow would go to work as she was a pharmacist.
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  I would put my hands on her and I would pray and I'd say, Lord,
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  I just pray for a great day for Willow.
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  I pray that you give. Her patience.
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  And that you give her wisdom for anything that happens in her
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  day. And I would pray this over and
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  over and over for a couple weeks and the until finally about
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  three weeks after I was praying that she said, please stop
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  praying for patience. Please, please stop praying for
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  opportunities for me to overcome because I keep getting them
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  every single time you pray. Isn't that true?
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  I I. Find that in my life.
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  Maybe you find that in your own life.
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  That when? You pray for patience, God gives
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  you an opportunity to show patience and I laughed because
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  earlier today I was praying for patience and I knew what I was
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  getting myself into I, I, I had my mind focus of like, OK, this
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  is how I'm going to act with my. Kids, I'm going to make sure
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  that they know that they're loved.
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  I'm going to make sure. That I'm going to, I'm just
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  going to encourage then I'm I'm not going to snap at them.
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  I'm not going to. Get frustrated.
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  With them. And sure enough, that is not
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  what happened. We we all have intentions and we
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  fall short of those intentions. But here's why I say all this.
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  At the end of the day, it's really important for you, for
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  me. For us.
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  To remember that if there's a mess.
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  In our life, that means that we're working towards something.
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  It means that we're. Trying to produce something in
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  our life maybe? Your job is a mess.
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  Maybe. Your marriage seems.
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  Like a mess right now. Maybe your?
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  House is a mess. There are messes galore in our
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  lives. But guess what?
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  Those messes in our life means that we're working on something.
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  We're doing something. We're trying to create produce.
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  We're trying to create fruit. In our life.
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  I want to encourage you today. If you haven't, pick up your
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  Bible and read. I was having a conversation with
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  a guy this last week at A at a men's function at my church and
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  he said, you know, I wish I could.
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  Hear God. 'S voice more and I said, oh you
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  can, you just got to read. You see this right here is the
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  word of God. As you.
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  Read it. You will start to hear God's
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  voice throughout your day. Maybe it's not an audible voice.
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  But maybe. It's a thought that reminds you
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  that you have oxen and those. Oxen are messy.
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  But they're producing in your life.
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  So until next time, remember to be more, see more.
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  And. Experience more than before.