When we under-promise and over-deliver, we build trust, momentum, and open the door for God to exceed expectations in our lives. Whether in marriage, fitness, or faith, setting realistic goals and surpassing them creates lasting growth. Just like Abraham, who offered little but gave much, exceeding his promise brought forth the long-awaited miracle. Start small, stay faithful, and let God do the rest.
Host: Pastor Ryan Brister
Co-Host: Brenden Bass
Producer: Joey Doherty
Scripture References:
Genesis 18:1–15
Proverbs 22:1
Matthew 5:37
Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro & Announcements
02:00 – Listener Questions
04:30 – Main Principle
07:20 – Business Examples
09:50 – Marriage & Expectations
13:40 – Fitness & Goals
17:30 – Abraham’s Story
25:20 – God’s Response
29:00 – Ministry & Reputation
35:50 – New Converts
39:00 – Saying No
44:30 – Power of Consistency
48:00 – Final Word
REACH HEAL SERVE
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Ocala Church podcast with Pastor Ryan
Brister. Today we're talking about a
powerful principle of under promising and over delivering.
(00:25):
All right. Speaking of this.
Topic Welcome back to the Ocala Church Podcast we are excited to
be back with you again on screenon audio, video and high
definition. High definition we have.
We have been caught in 4K as theas they say so.
(00:49):
HDHDADHD. Just waiting for that.
I knew that was going somewhere.So we are looking forward to a
fantastic podcast today. But before we get to that, we
want to remind you about our questions.
(01:11):
Yes, questions. You can.
We want to remind you about yourquestions.
Yeah, that's your questions. So e-mail us in podcast at Ocala
dot Church if you have anything you would like to hear us
discuss or maybe you have a question on something we've
already talked about and you would like us to elaborate a
little bit more. You mail us at podcast at Ocala
(01:34):
dot Church. And also you've not tried out
Ocala Coffee yet. Boom.
This is not coffee. This is actually a refresher.
Cala Refresher Ocala Refresher. I need a right-handed coffee mug
in the worst kind of way. It's got a left-handed coffee
mug and it's killing them. So.
(01:57):
But we, we've got all kinds of stuff.
So be sure to stop by Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays at Ocala
Coffee. So we've got a great topic
today. Well.
Before you go into that topic, we need you.
People are y'all. Listen to me.
We need y'all to go and like andshare and subscribe and do all
(02:23):
the algorithm thingies so that this gets out there.
So do us A, do us a solid and go.
Promise and deliver. Yeah, we need you to deliver on
this promise. I need everybody listening and
watching right now to promise meyou're going to go like share
(02:44):
and subscribe and you're going to leave a comment and you're
going to leave a review. All of you are going to do that
right now. So I'm giving you a second to go
do that right now. You're going to leave a comment.
It's going to be or a review andit's going to be a good review
because Mama said if you don't have anything good to say, don't
say anything at all. So anyway, I just wanted to get
(03:07):
that out of the way. I know everybody that's
listening to this is going to dothat.
And so I'm so excited about reading our new reviews next
week, and thank you in advance for that.
Brother Sullivan, we're talking to you, right?
Now we're specifically talking to brother Sullivan, Brother
Risley, Brother Caleb, or the Branum.
(03:28):
Anyway, you know who you are, sogood times.
Anyway, if you would, you know what isn't going to make sense
at the end of this podcast, but promise us right now that you
would just like this podcast andby the end of this podcast
deliver on a like a comment, a subscribe, a review, all of the
(03:51):
above. Do you promise it will make
sense by the end of this podcast?
I have no guarantee if we do ourjob well, this is going to make
sense by the end of this podcast.
That's. A pretty big promise.
Brother so. Can we deliver?
Can we? Yeah.
So we are discussing the it's very prevalent in the business
(04:17):
world this concept of under promising and over delivering
and we need to play some be reelof our bloopers trying to get
that out trying. To get that.
It is quite a commitment just toget that line out.
(04:38):
Forgive us if we get that back during this podcast.
Yeah. But anyway, it is a it is a
business principle that many businesses use to build loyalty
and trust with their customers. And it's, it's really kind of a
(05:01):
tricky move that especially companies that are into
shipping, drop shipping, those kind of things, they use this
this principle to make their customers happy and to exceed
customer expectations. The way they do this is if if
(05:25):
you buy something on Amazon, Amazon uses this, Apple uses
this many other companies, but if you buy something on Amazon
or on Apple, they will tell you if you buy it on Monday.
So we can have it there by Thursday knowing the entire time
that we can have it there by Wednesday.
(05:48):
But the customer thinks that thethe company has really worked
hard for them and so they exceedcustomer expectation by having
their packages there earlier than they advertise that they
could. This is under promising and over
(06:11):
delivering. This is an incredible,
incredible tool to use in business and in life to create
loyalty and trust with a customer base or in other ways.
Relationships. Relationships.
Yeah, yes, one of the, one of the and I, I, I talk about this
(06:35):
a lot and we're doing a series on family on Tuesday nights
right now at the Ocala church. But one of the biggest problems
and issues that young couples wrestle with is unmet
expectations. They go into the marriage
(06:56):
feeling like there is, there is going to be this level of
euphoria and and bliss that neither one involved can deliver
on. And so it is very, very
important that in the first, in the first years of your marriage
(07:22):
together that you learn how to set realistic expectations for
each other. Yeah, I, I can't, I, I'm not
going to go into it on the podcast, but unmet that unmet
expectations in many areas of your married life will cause you
(07:50):
great, great frustration. And it can be solved in large
part by not committing to something that you can't deliver
on, not promising something thatyou can't deliver on.
It would be it would be better for you to promise your spouse
less than what you know you can deliver on and exceed that
(08:15):
expectation because you under promised then to promise her the
moon and you can't give her gravel.
I mean, I hope, I hope that's making sense.
But that's what we do. I mean, we're 1819 years old,
barely out of high school. We meet the love of our life and
(08:38):
we get all Twitterpated and we're on the phone every night
and we're talking about everything that we're going to
give this Yeah, girl. And and we, I mean, we're not
even paying our own truck now, so we're going.
To have a castle. Yeah.
I I live in a single wide. I mean, I know I promised you a
(09:01):
double wide. It's just wide.
It's just wide. Don't even got the single.
I promised you I promised you a castle and I I've got this
cracker box and I hope you have a good imagination.
But that is that is something that's extremely important
(09:22):
across the board to set realistic expectations.
This is very, very true in, you know, we've, we've talked about
in physical fitness and people, especially around the first of
the year, they get all excited about their new weight loss
(09:46):
journey or their new exercise journey, their physical fitness
journey. And they're going to, they're
going to get this gym membership, they're going to hit
the gym and they're going to be,you know, just jacked by the end
of this coming year. And they go to the gym on
January 1st and they work out for four hours and they can't
(10:10):
walk for two months and they never go back.
What would have been better was for them to commit to 15 minutes
of workout every day. Set an attainable goal.
(10:30):
And meet that goal, go in for 15minutes, work out for 20 minutes
and you've exceeded your own expectations for yourself and
you're building momentum. And by the end of the year you
can work out for an hour becauseyou've under promised.
And all year long you've been incrementally over delivering on
(10:53):
your workout goals. Now this is something that I
really need to take to heart. OK, I'm preaching to myself
right now. And work out your own salvation.
This is this is definitely the voice of experience talker right
now. But then you know, when, if we
bring all of this back to the tothe church, this this concept is
(11:21):
not just a business concept. It's not just a health concept.
Let's look at the book of Genesis, chapter 18.
When you look, when you lay thisidea over this passage of
Scripture, this is a very biblical idea.
(11:44):
I don't know if one of you guys have it that you can read.
What version do you want? The KJV is fine if it was good
enough for Paul and Silas. Verse one.
Verse one, yeah. And the Lord appeared unto him,
and the plans of memory, and he sat in the tent door in the heat
of the day, and he lift up his eyes and looked.
And lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to
(12:08):
meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the
ground. And said, My Lord, if now I have
found favor in thy sight. So he's, he has recognized that
there is a, there is a, a momenthappening with God.
God is giving him an opportunityto create a moment.
(12:31):
Really, he's given him an opportunity to create more than
a moment. And Abraham wants to capitalize
on this because God don't just walk by your front door every
day, right, Right. At least you don't walk by my
front door just every day, not in physical form, but he walks
by with two of his angels. And Abraham says I will not let
(12:59):
them pass me by, but I'm going to.
I'm going to go out and do whatever I can do to get them
back to my place. So we can not just have a moment
here, but we can have a visitation.
I remember, I believe it was at SCORE Conference right here at
this church years and years ago.And I just thought about this,
(13:22):
but Brother McMullen, Steve McMullen preached a message
called preparing a place for a visitation.
And he talked about this, this idea not under promising and
over delivering, but he talked about preparing a place for a
visitation with God. But it struck me that Abraham
(13:43):
didn't do what we do to try to get God back to his house for a
visit. We would have went out and
promised God the moon. Yeah.
Come back to my house and I'll, I'll give you, you know, I'll,
yeah, I'm fixing to, I'm fixing to fire up the grill.
We're going to have filet mignon.
(14:04):
We're going to, you know, we're going to do this thing right.
Or maybe lamb. You know, we're going to have
lamb chops. Whatever.
We that's the way we approach God.
We approach God in modern Christianity, promising the moon
and the stars, right? But that's not what Abraham did.
(14:24):
Watch this. He says, my Lord, if now I've
found favor in your. Sight if.
I've found favor. Pass not away, I pray thee, from
thy servant. Let a little water, I pray you,
be fetched, and wash your feet. Let let me bring you a little
water and wash your feet. And rest yourselves under the
tree and I will fetch a morsel of bread.
Now we would have we we would have told him, we're going to
(14:47):
give you a, a Jacuzzi bath. And you know, we're going to,
we're going to, we're going to not just give you a morsel of
bread. We're going to, we're going to
bake you. We're fixing to go down to the
bakery. We're fixing to bake you a cake.
That's going to be unbelievable.We're going to we're going to go
over the top because this is Godafter all.
(15:09):
Get. Some naan.
From Amber Palace, we're fixing to get some cheesy garlic naan
from Emirate Palace and it's about to be own and that's the
way we talk to God. And but that's not what Abraham
did. He said.
He said, if you'll come, I'm going to get I'm going to get a
little water. I'm going to bring you a morsel
(15:29):
of bread. And that's all that.
That's all that he promised. But it worked.
God didn't. God didn't require him to
promise him the moon and the stars for him to to pay a visit
with him. He just wanted him to give him
something and read what Abraham does.
(15:53):
Comfort your hearts, and then after that you will pass on, for
therefore are you come to your servant.
And they said, So do as thou hast said.
And neighborhood hastened unto the tent unto Sarah, and said,
Make ready quickly 3 measures offine meal, knead it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. So, so we got, we, we got, we
(16:13):
went from a morsel of bread to three measures of fine meal, and
now she's baking cakes. Wow.
Read. And make cakes upon the hearth.
And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a cap, tender and
good, and gave it unto a young man, and he hasted to dress it.
So we've we've went from a promise of a little water, a
(16:36):
morsel of bread to we got, we'vegot not just a cake, but we've
got cakes, multiple cakes. And now we're out in the field
butcher and a cow. Wow, now I'm country.
I know y'all couldn't tell that,but you don't just butcher a cow
(17:01):
and it's ready to eat in a couple hours.
This is a long process. This is most likely more than a
day that Abraham has created this this place for a visitation
with God. He has under promised, but he
(17:23):
has way exceeded the expectations that he has set for
God. Yeah.
And after he has exceeded God's expectations, there's one thing
that for by this time, somewherearound 70 to 75 years that
(17:46):
Abraham has been praying for andasking God for.
And it seems like the promise iscompletely unattainable until he
creates a a, a place for a visitation with God.
He he promises just a little bitof service and then he far
(18:06):
exceeds what he promised God andthen watch what happens and he
took. Milk and butter and the cap
which he had dressed. Nobody ever said anything about
milk and butter. I thought it.
Was water. It's supposed to be water.
And now we got did. Not use margarine, he.
Just this is not, I can't believe it's not butter.
Butter. This is the real deal.
I can believe it. And he stood by them under the
(18:30):
tree, and they did eat. And they said unto him, Where is
Sarah your wife? There it is.
So expectations have been far surpassed.
And then God says now it's time to deal with the issue at hand.
Where is your wife, Reed? And he said, Behold, in the
(18:52):
tent. And he said, I will certainly
return unto thee according to the time of the life.
And lo, Sarah, thy wife shall have a son.
She's going to have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent
door, which was behind him. The promised child is coming and
it you may say, well, that's that's just a coincidence.
It was going to happen anyway. This story's in the Bible for a
(19:15):
reason. It's set up this way for a
reason. God could have just told Moses
to write down that Abraham he met with Abraham on such and
such a day and he promised him his son was going to be born.
But he he went to great lengths to let us know what led up to
(19:36):
this promise being fulfilled. And it was a a promise that was
made, but then it was over delivered on Abraham exceeded
the expectations that he had setfor God.
And it on the heels of that whathe had been praying for and
(19:56):
longing for the most came to pass.
Could it be that many of us are not receiving what we are
seeking for from God because we are over promising and under
little under delivering? We are, we are coming to God and
we are setting expectations for our relationship with God.
(20:20):
That are way too high for us to achieve wouldn't it be better if
we flip that around and set the expectations to a place that we
know without a shadow of a doubtI can meet those expectations
and then just do a little more than that a little more.
(20:43):
It's, it's, it's one of the things that happens in the
church and especially in a, in agrowing church, there is, there
is always a place to serve and there's, there's committees and
there's teams and there's, you know, the one guy said, you know
(21:03):
what a, you know what a camel is?
Camel is a horse that was built by a committee.
But you have your, your committees in the church, you
have your teams in the church. And, and people come into the
church, they're excited about what God has done for them.
(21:24):
And they want to serve the Kingdom of God.
And they, man, they sign up to be on every team in the church.
And they forgot because of the emotion and the zealous
zealousness that they have a jobto work every day and they have
a family. They forgot they were married
(21:47):
for a minute and their their spouse requires some time and
their home requires some time and their children require some
time. So how are you going to how are
you going to fulfill all of these obligations that you've
set for yourself and take care of your family?
(22:13):
Oh, and by the way, you got a God that requires some time.
We, I know how it is as a pastorto get so busy with life and get
so busy with the busyness of theKingdom doing good work that I
forget who I'm working for. Who are you?
Working for the Martha Mary typeof situation.
(22:36):
Yeah, part of that David issue with the whole thing of
Bathsheba, you look at the fact that he did not go out to
battle. He, he kind of lost sight of,
you know, I had AI have things to do in commitments elsewhere
and he dropped those commitmentsand it opened doors that.
(22:57):
You know. Should not have been opened.
You drop your commitments in prayer and it opens up.
Yeah, you, you put yourself in jeopardy by over promising to
the point that you frustrate yourself and you throw your
hands up and say I'm just not going to do anything.
Then you open up yourself to temptation because the idle
minds, the devil's workshop. It would be better for you to
(23:21):
say, let me just put it like this.
Sometimes. Sometimes the most polite thing
to say when you're asked to joina team or to do something, the
most polite thing to say sometimes is no.
Sometimes. Yeah, just just not when I ask
you to. So yeah, any of us.
(23:42):
Yeah, it's always yes. You'll be the subject of the
next podcast. No, but but I mean it is because
if you say yes and now you're stressed out and you have a
million things to do and you can't fulfill what they need you
to do, yes, who's it's going to impact you and them.
Yes. And the church is not edified by
(24:03):
that. No, it's not some.
Sometimes it's better to say yesto something you know you can
fulfill and no to everything else.
So when you have set those expectations, they may.
Their feelings may be hurt that you said no, but you won't ruin
(24:24):
your reputation by not being able to follow through on the
expectations that you have set. And so again, write that down.
Sometimes it's more polite to say no when you have over
obligated yourself. We've got to remember that our
(24:48):
word has to mean something, and many times it's not that people
have bad intentions for not following through, it's that
they gave their word too much right and they overloaded their
(25:10):
wagon and they couldn't pull it anymore.
I think one of the you'd given us a book on boundaries.
Yes. And part of that book is, is the
concept that I feel like growingup in church, I didn't
understand fully, but it is OK to say no.
Yeah. Because you have to set
boundaries, and people with healthy boundaries will
(25:33):
understand when you say no, Yes,I get it, you know?
Yes. Now I will say that one of maybe
the most important thing that you have is your reputation,
right? Yes.
The Bible says that a good reputation is rather to be had
(25:54):
than silver and gold. Because you got a good
reputation, a good likelihood isthat silver and gold will take
care of itself. That's how business.
Business works, yes. Yes.
And so I remember, I remember when I was youth pastor at
(26:16):
Sebastopol, Ms. I, I was youth pastoring.
I was working for my pastor fulltime.
I was working for him 8 to 9 hours a day.
I was running two businesses. I had a lot going on.
(26:38):
On top of all of that, I was on the youth committee for one of
our organizations and was part of organizing youth camp and I
made a lot of promises to the youth committee about what I was
(27:00):
going to do to make sure youth camp happened.
And time got away from me and life got away from me and I over
committed myself. And in my youth and ignorance, I
the day that I was supposed to have everything, that all of the
(27:23):
things that I was supposed to add to the youth camp, the day
that I was supposed to do it. I was so overwhelmed with my
life and my businesses and my ministry and you know what I was
doing for the Kingdom locally that I could not, I didn't feel
(27:44):
like I could deliver on my promise to the committee.
And I made a phone call to the, the youth chair and the youth
president at the time. And I told him, I said, brother,
I, I'm sorry, but I can't, I can't do it.
(28:05):
I know I told you I'd do it, butI have gotten wow, way over
committed. And I, I'm just, I'm just out of
time and out of life and out of resources and out of energy.
And he was not happy with me at all.
Why would you not be happy? With.
(28:25):
Me, I I can't believe that on the day of he didn't just say oh
brother, it'll be all right don't worry about it.
Get. The light of God.
Yeah. And so he made a phone call to
my pastor. That's good news.
And my pastor called me and he said, son, the most important
(28:46):
thing in your life as a man of God is your word and your
reputation. Because if people can't trust
what you say, they can't trust what you preach.
Oh. That's good.
That's good. And he said, you get this deal
done, I don't care if it kills you.
(29:08):
Yes, Sir. Strong words.
Yes, that's exactly what he toldme.
And brother, when I tell you, bythe time I got it done, I
thought I was going to die. I mean, I worked all day way
into the next morning without sleeping to get this commitment
(29:28):
done. But you know what, just a couple
of years later, I was on the evangelistic field preaching for
some of these men that I was on the committee with, and I
salvage my reputation with them and I salvage to my level of
respect for them. So, so we are saying that up
(29:52):
front, you need to say no, not after you've already committed.
If you've already committed, getit done if it kills you because
your reputation matters, but after you get it done, you need
to dial it back. You might need, you might need
(30:16):
to go tell one of your team leaders that I, I'm, I'm going
to have to focus on this other thing.
I'm going to have to focus on this other thing that I'm doing.
Everybody needs to be participating in some way in the
Kingdom, but nobody can participate in everything going
on in the Kingdom. So under promise tell, just sign
(30:42):
up for what you know for sure that you can do and then over
deliver on that. Do more than you said you were
going to do and exceed those expectations.
We need to do this with God and we'll, we'll close with this.
We'll. But as a pastor, as an
(31:04):
evangelist, as a youth pastor, I've seen this over and over and
over through the years that new converts come into the church.
They pray through to the Holy Ghost.
They get so excited about this new found joy and peace.
It's like when you first bought that gym membership, you're
like, man, you can see, you can see the ABS.
(31:28):
You know that you're going to have just a year from now, You
know, you can see it. And then you know, they, they
can see the progression in the in their mind and in their
spirit. They can see where God is taking
them. He gives them a glimpse of where
they can be and they think it's going to be tomorrow.
(31:48):
And so they they come into the Kingdom and they said, God, I'm
going to pray 12 hours a day, you know, 45 days a month, 390
days a year, eight days a week. And they over promise.
And by the end of the first week, they're so frustrated with
themselves, they quit their prayer life altogether.
(32:11):
I'm going to fast nine days a week.
Yeah, and by the end of the first week, they're so
frustrated with themselves they give up fasting all together.
I'm going to read my Bible 40 times this year.
Oh yeah. Now prayer is good, Bible
reading is a positive thing, fasting is a must.
(32:34):
But you can't over promise right?
You will frustrate yourself and get nowhere with God by
promising too much. And we hear, you know, we, we go
to services and we have evangelists that and I'm, I'm
all for it. I was one of those evangelists.
(32:55):
They're pushing us to do more. That's we should be always
striving to do more, but more needs to be something I know I
can accomplish. It's manageable more doesn't
need to be with the other personis doing.
That's a good phrase. More is manageable.
Yeah. More needs to be manageable.
(33:16):
Yeah. So instead of coming into the
Kingdom and promising that you're going to pray an hour
every day is a new convert. That's like, that's like going
to the gym and working 4 hours in a day.
You're not there yet, but but you can do 10 minutes and if you
(33:43):
promise 10 minutes and come in and do 15, you promised God 10
and you gave him 15. You've exceeded his
expectations, the expectations that you set.
It's we have the luxury of setting the expectations.
Yeah, yeah. And so God's just God's not
(34:06):
wanting you to promise him the moon and the stars.
He just wants you to give him something.
All you got to do to get God to stop by and pay a visit with you
every day is promise him a morsel.
Give him. A morsel.
Give him a little water and if you can give him a cow, give him
a cow. If you can give him multiple
(34:26):
cakes, give him multiple cakes. If you can promise him water and
then give him milk and butter. Give him milk and butter.
But at least you set the expectations at a little water
in a morsel of bread. And when you exceed those
expectations, those are the kindof people that have found favor
with God and God starts handing out his promises to those
(34:49):
people. You will get so much further in
your walk with God by under promising and over delivering.
Then you will in your zeal, promising something that you
can't fulfill. That's so good.
(35:09):
It's, I forget who, I forget whowrote it, but there's a book
that kind of covers that when you talk about working out, it
was this whole concept of if youcan set a goal that is
attainable and just keep keepingan attainable goal, then the
(35:31):
likelihood that you can grow that is you'll you will grow,
but you won't quit. The stats show that Somebody
who's like I, I just want to work out for an hour a day.
Well, can you do 5 push ups a day?
Yeah, anybody can do that nearly.
Is that a year down the road? You'll still be working out.
Yeah. You'll still be.
(35:52):
You might be doing 10 push ups aday.
You might not have grown as muchas you thought you could have or
would have, but you kept. Consistency.
You're doing something. You're doing something, and
consistency is the most important piece of this.
Yeah, consistency is better thansporadic quantity.
Yes, in, in basically everything, everything business.
(36:13):
Prayer. Everything relationships just be
consistent. Be consistent.
One of the worst things that canhappen is not for others to lose
confidence in you, but for you to lose confidence in you.
Constantly setting goals that you cannot.
(36:35):
Can't keep that'll. Then you get frustrated with
you, and when you're down on you, nobody can pick you up
because you have failed you so many times, because you promise
things that really, really, you know you can't do that.
(36:56):
I feel like it's, it's kind of like Bishop Ramsey, Bishop David
Ramsey said. He said something along the
lines and he was talking about purchasing stuff, but he's like,
if it's over $500, maybe you should sleep on it.
And I think some people and and some things you need to act on,
but a lot of things you can, youknow, say to the person, Hey,
(37:16):
you know, I appreciate you offering this to.
Me. Let me think about it.
Let me think. About it and pray.
About it. Yeah, absolutely.
And then getting back to them a day.
Later. I mean, praying about it
wouldn't be a bad idea. You make that even your
commitments to God is I'm going to make a commitment here, but
let me think about this. Let me let me make sure what I'm
(37:37):
doing is something that is realistic.
Yes. Is it in the budget of my time?
Is it in the budget of my money?Is it?
And then you may need to go to the budget of your time and
rearrange some stuff, but that takes time.
It takes time and you have to put effort into that and, and
think about it. But when things matter to you,
when it matters that I, I want to do this.
(37:59):
I want this commitment. I want a better prayer life.
I want to have those big biceps.So I'm going to rearrange my
time to get to the gym. I'm going to rearrange my time
to get to the church. Yes.
And and make a goal that it is manageable and that I can hit
and it's not going to be something that's going to just
(38:20):
pull me apart. Frustrate myself with myself
because if I lose confidence in my own word then I can't change.
And it gets harder and harder tochange the more you fail
yourself. Yes.
The more you don't keep your ownword, the more you lose trust in
(38:43):
your own word. And so we're encouraging you
today under promise and then over deliver on those promises
and watch God's promise be fulfilled in your life.
Musicians come.
Welcome to the Ocala Church podcast with Pastor Ryan
Brister. Today we're talking about a
powerful principle of under promising and over delivering.
(00:25):
All right. Speaking of this.
Topic Welcome back to the Ocala Church Podcast we are excited to
be back with you again on screenon audio, video and high
definition. High definition we have.
We have been caught in 4K as theas they say so.
(00:49):
HDHDADHD. Just waiting for that.
I knew that was going somewhere.So we are looking forward to a
fantastic podcast today. But before we get to that, we
want to remind you about our questions.
(01:11):
Yes, questions. You can.
We want to remind you about yourquestions.
Yeah, that's your questions. So e-mail us in podcast at Ocala
dot Church if you have anything you would like to hear us
discuss or maybe you have a question on something we've
already talked about and you would like us to elaborate a
little bit more. You mail us at podcast at Ocala
(01:34):
dot Church. And also you've not tried out
Ocala Coffee yet. Boom.
This is not coffee. This is actually a refresher.
Cala Refresher Ocala Refresher. I need a right-handed coffee mug
in the worst kind of way. It's got a left-handed coffee
mug and it's killing them. So.
(01:57):
But we, we've got all kinds of stuff.
So be sure to stop by Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays at Ocala
Coffee. So we've got a great topic
today. Well.
Before you go into that topic, we need you.
People are y'all. Listen to me.
We need y'all to go and like andshare and subscribe and do all
(02:23):
the algorithm thingies so that this gets out there.
So do us A, do us a solid and go.
Promise and deliver. Yeah, we need you to deliver on
this promise. I need everybody listening and
watching right now to promise meyou're going to go like share
(02:44):
and subscribe and you're going to leave a comment and you're
going to leave a review. All of you are going to do that
right now. So I'm giving you a second to go
do that right now. You're going to leave a comment.
It's going to be or a review andit's going to be a good review
because Mama said if you don't have anything good to say, don't
say anything at all. So anyway, I just wanted to get
(03:07):
that out of the way. I know everybody that's
listening to this is going to dothat.
And so I'm so excited about reading our new reviews next
week, and thank you in advance for that.
Brother Sullivan, we're talking to you, right?
Now we're specifically talking to brother Sullivan, Brother
Risley, Brother Caleb, or the Branum.
(03:28):
Anyway, you know who you are, sogood times.
Anyway, if you would, you know what isn't going to make sense
at the end of this podcast, but promise us right now that you
would just like this podcast andby the end of this podcast
deliver on a like a comment, a subscribe, a review, all of the
(03:51):
above. Do you promise it will make
sense by the end of this podcast?
I have no guarantee if we do ourjob well, this is going to make
sense by the end of this podcast.
That's. A pretty big promise.
Brother so. Can we deliver?
Can we? Yeah.
So we are discussing the it's very prevalent in the business
(04:17):
world this concept of under promising and over delivering
and we need to play some be reelof our bloopers trying to get
that out trying. To get that.
It is quite a commitment just toget that line out.
(04:38):
Forgive us if we get that back during this podcast.
Yeah. But anyway, it is a it is a
business principle that many businesses use to build loyalty
and trust with their customers. And it's, it's really kind of a
(05:01):
tricky move that especially companies that are into
shipping, drop shipping, those kind of things, they use this
this principle to make their customers happy and to exceed
customer expectations. The way they do this is if if
(05:25):
you buy something on Amazon, Amazon uses this, Apple uses
this many other companies, but if you buy something on Amazon
or on Apple, they will tell you if you buy it on Monday.
So we can have it there by Thursday knowing the entire time
that we can have it there by Wednesday.
(05:48):
But the customer thinks that thethe company has really worked
hard for them and so they exceedcustomer expectation by having
their packages there earlier than they advertise that they
could. This is under promising and over
(06:11):
delivering. This is an incredible,
incredible tool to use in business and in life to create
loyalty and trust with a customer base or in other ways.
Relationships. Relationships.
Yeah, yes, one of the, one of the and I, I, I talk about this
(06:35):
a lot and we're doing a series on family on Tuesday nights
right now at the Ocala church. But one of the biggest problems
and issues that young couples wrestle with is unmet
expectations. They go into the marriage
(06:56):
feeling like there is, there is going to be this level of
euphoria and and bliss that neither one involved can deliver
on. And so it is very, very
important that in the first, in the first years of your marriage
(07:22):
together that you learn how to set realistic expectations for
each other. Yeah, I, I can't, I, I'm not
going to go into it on the podcast, but unmet that unmet
expectations in many areas of your married life will cause you
(07:50):
great, great frustration. And it can be solved in large
part by not committing to something that you can't deliver
on, not promising something thatyou can't deliver on.
It would be it would be better for you to promise your spouse
less than what you know you can deliver on and exceed that
(08:15):
expectation because you under promised then to promise her the
moon and you can't give her gravel.
I mean, I hope, I hope that's making sense.
But that's what we do. I mean, we're 1819 years old,
barely out of high school. We meet the love of our life and
(08:38):
we get all Twitterpated and we're on the phone every night
and we're talking about everything that we're going to
give this Yeah, girl. And and we, I mean, we're not
even paying our own truck now, so we're going.
To have a castle. Yeah.
I I live in a single wide. I mean, I know I promised you a
(09:01):
double wide. It's just wide.
It's just wide. Don't even got the single.
I promised you I promised you a castle and I I've got this
cracker box and I hope you have a good imagination.
But that is that is something that's extremely important
(09:22):
across the board to set realistic expectations.
This is very, very true in, you know, we've, we've talked about
in physical fitness and people, especially around the first of
the year, they get all excited about their new weight loss
(09:46):
journey or their new exercise journey, their physical fitness
journey. And they're going to, they're
going to get this gym membership, they're going to hit
the gym and they're going to be,you know, just jacked by the end
of this coming year. And they go to the gym on
January 1st and they work out for four hours and they can't
(10:10):
walk for two months and they never go back.
What would have been better was for them to commit to 15 minutes
of workout every day. Set an attainable goal.
(10:30):
And meet that goal, go in for 15minutes, work out for 20 minutes
and you've exceeded your own expectations for yourself and
you're building momentum. And by the end of the year you
can work out for an hour becauseyou've under promised.
And all year long you've been incrementally over delivering on
(10:53):
your workout goals. Now this is something that I
really need to take to heart. OK, I'm preaching to myself
right now. And work out your own salvation.
This is this is definitely the voice of experience talker right
now. But then you know, when, if we
bring all of this back to the tothe church, this this concept is
(11:21):
not just a business concept. It's not just a health concept.
Let's look at the book of Genesis, chapter 18.
When you look, when you lay thisidea over this passage of
Scripture, this is a very biblical idea.
(11:44):
I don't know if one of you guys have it that you can read.
What version do you want? The KJV is fine if it was good
enough for Paul and Silas. Verse one.
Verse one, yeah. And the Lord appeared unto him,
and the plans of memory, and he sat in the tent door in the heat
of the day, and he lift up his eyes and looked.
And lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to
(12:08):
meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the
ground. And said, My Lord, if now I have
found favor in thy sight. So he's, he has recognized that
there is a, there is a, a momenthappening with God.
God is giving him an opportunityto create a moment.
(12:31):
Really, he's given him an opportunity to create more than
a moment. And Abraham wants to capitalize
on this because God don't just walk by your front door every
day, right, Right. At least you don't walk by my
front door just every day, not in physical form, but he walks
by with two of his angels. And Abraham says I will not let
(12:59):
them pass me by, but I'm going to.
I'm going to go out and do whatever I can do to get them
back to my place. So we can not just have a moment
here, but we can have a visitation.
I remember, I believe it was at SCORE Conference right here at
this church years and years ago.And I just thought about this,
(13:22):
but Brother McMullen, Steve McMullen preached a message
called preparing a place for a visitation.
And he talked about this, this idea not under promising and
over delivering, but he talked about preparing a place for a
visitation with God. But it struck me that Abraham
(13:43):
didn't do what we do to try to get God back to his house for a
visit. We would have went out and
promised God the moon. Yeah.
Come back to my house and I'll, I'll give you, you know, I'll,
yeah, I'm fixing to, I'm fixing to fire up the grill.
We're going to have filet mignon.
(14:04):
We're going to, you know, we're going to do this thing right.
Or maybe lamb. You know, we're going to have
lamb chops. Whatever.
We that's the way we approach God.
We approach God in modern Christianity, promising the moon
and the stars, right? But that's not what Abraham did.
(14:24):
Watch this. He says, my Lord, if now I've
found favor in your. Sight if.
I've found favor. Pass not away, I pray thee, from
thy servant. Let a little water, I pray you,
be fetched, and wash your feet. Let let me bring you a little
water and wash your feet. And rest yourselves under the
tree and I will fetch a morsel of bread.
Now we would have we we would have told him, we're going to
(14:47):
give you a, a Jacuzzi bath. And you know, we're going to,
we're going to, we're going to not just give you a morsel of
bread. We're going to, we're going to
bake you. We're fixing to go down to the
bakery. We're fixing to bake you a cake.
That's going to be unbelievable.We're going to we're going to go
over the top because this is Godafter all.
(15:09):
Get. Some naan.
From Amber Palace, we're fixing to get some cheesy garlic naan
from Emirate Palace and it's about to be own and that's the
way we talk to God. And but that's not what Abraham
did. He said.
He said, if you'll come, I'm going to get I'm going to get a
little water. I'm going to bring you a morsel
(15:29):
of bread. And that's all that.
That's all that he promised. But it worked.
God didn't. God didn't require him to
promise him the moon and the stars for him to to pay a visit
with him. He just wanted him to give him
something and read what Abraham does.
(15:53):
Comfort your hearts, and then after that you will pass on, for
therefore are you come to your servant.
And they said, So do as thou hast said.
And neighborhood hastened unto the tent unto Sarah, and said,
Make ready quickly 3 measures offine meal, knead it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. So, so we got, we, we got, we
(16:13):
went from a morsel of bread to three measures of fine meal, and
now she's baking cakes. Wow.
Read. And make cakes upon the hearth.
And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a cap, tender and
good, and gave it unto a young man, and he hasted to dress it.
So we've we've went from a promise of a little water, a
(16:36):
morsel of bread to we got, we'vegot not just a cake, but we've
got cakes, multiple cakes. And now we're out in the field
butcher and a cow. Wow, now I'm country.
I know y'all couldn't tell that,but you don't just butcher a cow
(17:01):
and it's ready to eat in a couple hours.
This is a long process. This is most likely more than a
day that Abraham has created this this place for a visitation
with God. He has under promised, but he
(17:23):
has way exceeded the expectations that he has set for
God. Yeah.
And after he has exceeded God's expectations, there's one thing
that for by this time, somewherearound 70 to 75 years that
(17:46):
Abraham has been praying for andasking God for.
And it seems like the promise iscompletely unattainable until he
creates a a, a place for a visitation with God.
He he promises just a little bitof service and then he far
(18:06):
exceeds what he promised God andthen watch what happens and he
took. Milk and butter and the cap
which he had dressed. Nobody ever said anything about
milk and butter. I thought it.
Was water. It's supposed to be water.
And now we got did. Not use margarine, he.
Just this is not, I can't believe it's not butter.
Butter. This is the real deal.
I can believe it. And he stood by them under the
(18:30):
tree, and they did eat. And they said unto him, Where is
Sarah your wife? There it is.
So expectations have been far surpassed.
And then God says now it's time to deal with the issue at hand.
Where is your wife, Reed? And he said, Behold, in the
(18:52):
tent. And he said, I will certainly
return unto thee according to the time of the life.
And lo, Sarah, thy wife shall have a son.
She's going to have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent
door, which was behind him. The promised child is coming and
it you may say, well, that's that's just a coincidence.
It was going to happen anyway. This story's in the Bible for a
(19:15):
reason. It's set up this way for a
reason. God could have just told Moses
to write down that Abraham he met with Abraham on such and
such a day and he promised him his son was going to be born.
But he he went to great lengths to let us know what led up to
(19:36):
this promise being fulfilled. And it was a a promise that was
made, but then it was over delivered on Abraham exceeded
the expectations that he had setfor God.
And it on the heels of that whathe had been praying for and
(19:56):
longing for the most came to pass.
Could it be that many of us are not receiving what we are
seeking for from God because we are over promising and under
little under delivering? We are, we are coming to God and
we are setting expectations for our relationship with God.
(20:20):
That are way too high for us to achieve wouldn't it be better if
we flip that around and set the expectations to a place that we
know without a shadow of a doubtI can meet those expectations
and then just do a little more than that a little more.
(20:43):
It's, it's, it's one of the things that happens in the
church and especially in a, in agrowing church, there is, there
is always a place to serve and there's, there's committees and
there's teams and there's, you know, the one guy said, you know
(21:03):
what a, you know what a camel is?
Camel is a horse that was built by a committee.
But you have your, your committees in the church, you
have your teams in the church. And, and people come into the
church, they're excited about what God has done for them.
(21:24):
And they want to serve the Kingdom of God.
And they, man, they sign up to be on every team in the church.
And they forgot because of the emotion and the zealous
zealousness that they have a jobto work every day and they have
a family. They forgot they were married
(21:47):
for a minute and their their spouse requires some time and
their home requires some time and their children require some
time. So how are you going to how are
you going to fulfill all of these obligations that you've
set for yourself and take care of your family?
(22:13):
Oh, and by the way, you got a God that requires some time.
We, I know how it is as a pastorto get so busy with life and get
so busy with the busyness of theKingdom doing good work that I
forget who I'm working for. Who are you?
Working for the Martha Mary typeof situation.
(22:36):
Yeah, part of that David issue with the whole thing of
Bathsheba, you look at the fact that he did not go out to
battle. He, he kind of lost sight of,
you know, I had AI have things to do in commitments elsewhere
and he dropped those commitmentsand it opened doors that.
(22:57):
You know. Should not have been opened.
You drop your commitments in prayer and it opens up.
Yeah, you, you put yourself in jeopardy by over promising to
the point that you frustrate yourself and you throw your
hands up and say I'm just not going to do anything.
Then you open up yourself to temptation because the idle
minds, the devil's workshop. It would be better for you to
(23:21):
say, let me just put it like this.
Sometimes. Sometimes the most polite thing
to say when you're asked to joina team or to do something, the
most polite thing to say sometimes is no.
Sometimes. Yeah, just just not when I ask
you to. So yeah, any of us.
(23:42):
Yeah, it's always yes. You'll be the subject of the
next podcast. No, but but I mean it is because
if you say yes and now you're stressed out and you have a
million things to do and you can't fulfill what they need you
to do, yes, who's it's going to impact you and them.
Yes. And the church is not edified by
(24:03):
that. No, it's not some.
Sometimes it's better to say yesto something you know you can
fulfill and no to everything else.
So when you have set those expectations, they may.
Their feelings may be hurt that you said no, but you won't ruin
(24:24):
your reputation by not being able to follow through on the
expectations that you have set. And so again, write that down.
Sometimes it's more polite to say no when you have over
obligated yourself. We've got to remember that our
(24:48):
word has to mean something, and many times it's not that people
have bad intentions for not following through, it's that
they gave their word too much right and they overloaded their
(25:10):
wagon and they couldn't pull it anymore.
I think one of the you'd given us a book on boundaries.
Yes. And part of that book is, is the
concept that I feel like growingup in church, I didn't
understand fully, but it is OK to say no.
Yeah. Because you have to set
boundaries, and people with healthy boundaries will
(25:33):
understand when you say no, Yes,I get it, you know?
Yes. Now I will say that one of maybe
the most important thing that you have is your reputation,
right? Yes.
The Bible says that a good reputation is rather to be had
(25:54):
than silver and gold. Because you got a good
reputation, a good likelihood isthat silver and gold will take
care of itself. That's how business.
Business works, yes. Yes.
And so I remember, I remember when I was youth pastor at
(26:16):
Sebastopol, Ms. I, I was youth pastoring.
I was working for my pastor fulltime.
I was working for him 8 to 9 hours a day.
I was running two businesses. I had a lot going on.
(26:38):
On top of all of that, I was on the youth committee for one of
our organizations and was part of organizing youth camp and I
made a lot of promises to the youth committee about what I was
(27:00):
going to do to make sure youth camp happened.
And time got away from me and life got away from me and I over
committed myself. And in my youth and ignorance, I
the day that I was supposed to have everything, that all of the
(27:23):
things that I was supposed to add to the youth camp, the day
that I was supposed to do it. I was so overwhelmed with my
life and my businesses and my ministry and you know what I was
doing for the Kingdom locally that I could not, I didn't feel
(27:44):
like I could deliver on my promise to the committee.
And I made a phone call to the, the youth chair and the youth
president at the time. And I told him, I said, brother,
I, I'm sorry, but I can't, I can't do it.
(28:05):
I know I told you I'd do it, butI have gotten wow, way over
committed. And I, I'm just, I'm just out of
time and out of life and out of resources and out of energy.
And he was not happy with me at all.
Why would you not be happy? With.
(28:25):
Me, I I can't believe that on the day of he didn't just say oh
brother, it'll be all right don't worry about it.
Get. The light of God.
Yeah. And so he made a phone call to
my pastor. That's good news.
And my pastor called me and he said, son, the most important
(28:46):
thing in your life as a man of God is your word and your
reputation. Because if people can't trust
what you say, they can't trust what you preach.
Oh. That's good.
That's good. And he said, you get this deal
done, I don't care if it kills you.
(29:08):
Yes, Sir. Strong words.
Yes, that's exactly what he toldme.
And brother, when I tell you, bythe time I got it done, I
thought I was going to die. I mean, I worked all day way
into the next morning without sleeping to get this commitment
(29:28):
done. But you know what, just a couple
of years later, I was on the evangelistic field preaching for
some of these men that I was on the committee with, and I
salvage my reputation with them and I salvage to my level of
respect for them. So, so we are saying that up
(29:52):
front, you need to say no, not after you've already committed.
If you've already committed, getit done if it kills you because
your reputation matters, but after you get it done, you need
to dial it back. You might need, you might need
(30:16):
to go tell one of your team leaders that I, I'm, I'm going
to have to focus on this other thing.
I'm going to have to focus on this other thing that I'm doing.
Everybody needs to be participating in some way in the
Kingdom, but nobody can participate in everything going
on in the Kingdom. So under promise tell, just sign
(30:42):
up for what you know for sure that you can do and then over
deliver on that. Do more than you said you were
going to do and exceed those expectations.
We need to do this with God and we'll, we'll close with this.
We'll. But as a pastor, as an
(31:04):
evangelist, as a youth pastor, I've seen this over and over and
over through the years that new converts come into the church.
They pray through to the Holy Ghost.
They get so excited about this new found joy and peace.
It's like when you first bought that gym membership, you're
like, man, you can see, you can see the ABS.
(31:28):
You know that you're going to have just a year from now, You
know, you can see it. And then you know, they, they
can see the progression in the in their mind and in their
spirit. They can see where God is taking
them. He gives them a glimpse of where
they can be and they think it's going to be tomorrow.
(31:48):
And so they they come into the Kingdom and they said, God, I'm
going to pray 12 hours a day, you know, 45 days a month, 390
days a year, eight days a week. And they over promise.
And by the end of the first week, they're so frustrated with
themselves, they quit their prayer life altogether.
(32:11):
I'm going to fast nine days a week.
Yeah, and by the end of the first week, they're so
frustrated with themselves they give up fasting all together.
I'm going to read my Bible 40 times this year.
Oh yeah. Now prayer is good, Bible
reading is a positive thing, fasting is a must.
(32:34):
But you can't over promise right?
You will frustrate yourself and get nowhere with God by
promising too much. And we hear, you know, we, we go
to services and we have evangelists that and I'm, I'm
all for it. I was one of those evangelists.
(32:55):
They're pushing us to do more. That's we should be always
striving to do more, but more needs to be something I know I
can accomplish. It's manageable more doesn't
need to be with the other personis doing.
That's a good phrase. More is manageable.
Yeah. More needs to be manageable.
(33:16):
Yeah. So instead of coming into the
Kingdom and promising that you're going to pray an hour
every day is a new convert. That's like, that's like going
to the gym and working 4 hours in a day.
You're not there yet, but but you can do 10 minutes and if you
(33:43):
promise 10 minutes and come in and do 15, you promised God 10
and you gave him 15. You've exceeded his
expectations, the expectations that you set.
It's we have the luxury of setting the expectations.
Yeah, yeah. And so God's just God's not
(34:06):
wanting you to promise him the moon and the stars.
He just wants you to give him something.
All you got to do to get God to stop by and pay a visit with you
every day is promise him a morsel.
Give him. A morsel.
Give him a little water and if you can give him a cow, give him
a cow. If you can give him multiple
(34:26):
cakes, give him multiple cakes. If you can promise him water and
then give him milk and butter. Give him milk and butter.
But at least you set the expectations at a little water
in a morsel of bread. And when you exceed those
expectations, those are the kindof people that have found favor
with God and God starts handing out his promises to those
(34:49):
people. You will get so much further in
your walk with God by under promising and over delivering.
Then you will in your zeal, promising something that you
can't fulfill. That's so good.
(35:09):
It's, I forget who, I forget whowrote it, but there's a book
that kind of covers that when you talk about working out, it
was this whole concept of if youcan set a goal that is
attainable and just keep keepingan attainable goal, then the
(35:31):
likelihood that you can grow that is you'll you will grow,
but you won't quit. The stats show that Somebody
who's like I, I just want to work out for an hour a day.
Well, can you do 5 push ups a day?
Yeah, anybody can do that nearly.
Is that a year down the road? You'll still be working out.
Yeah. You'll still be.
(35:52):
You might be doing 10 push ups aday.
You might not have grown as muchas you thought you could have or
would have, but you kept. Consistency.
You're doing something. You're doing something, and
consistency is the most important piece of this.
Yeah, consistency is better thansporadic quantity.
Yes, in, in basically everything, everything business.
(36:13):
Prayer. Everything relationships just be
consistent. Be consistent.
One of the worst things that canhappen is not for others to lose
confidence in you, but for you to lose confidence in you.
Constantly setting goals that you cannot.
(36:35):
Can't keep that'll. Then you get frustrated with
you, and when you're down on you, nobody can pick you up
because you have failed you so many times, because you promise
things that really, really, you know you can't do that.
(36:56):
I feel like it's, it's kind of like Bishop Ramsey, Bishop David
Ramsey said. He said something along the
lines and he was talking about purchasing stuff, but he's like,
if it's over $500, maybe you should sleep on it.
And I think some people and and some things you need to act on,
but a lot of things you can, youknow, say to the person, Hey,
(37:16):
you know, I appreciate you offering this to.
Me. Let me think about it.
Let me think. About it and pray.
About it. Yeah, absolutely.
And then getting back to them a day.
Later. I mean, praying about it
wouldn't be a bad idea. You make that even your
commitments to God is I'm going to make a commitment here, but
let me think about this. Let me let me make sure what I'm
(37:37):
doing is something that is realistic.
Yes. Is it in the budget of my time?
Is it in the budget of my money?Is it?
And then you may need to go to the budget of your time and
rearrange some stuff, but that takes time.
It takes time and you have to put effort into that and, and
think about it. But when things matter to you,
when it matters that I, I want to do this.
(37:59):
I want this commitment. I want a better prayer life.
I want to have those big biceps.So I'm going to rearrange my
time to get to the gym. I'm going to rearrange my time
to get to the church. Yes.
And and make a goal that it is manageable and that I can hit
and it's not going to be something that's going to just
(38:20):
pull me apart. Frustrate myself with myself
because if I lose confidence in my own word then I can't change.
And it gets harder and harder tochange the more you fail
yourself. Yes.
The more you don't keep your ownword, the more you lose trust in
(38:43):
your own word. And so we're encouraging you
today under promise and then over deliver on those promises
and watch God's promise be fulfilled in your life.
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