Discovering Purpose

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help, you know, God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways. [00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in. Welcome to High Ridge Longview, everybody. I'm so glad that you made it. Welcome, welcome, welcome to church. We, we do have some extra chairs and there's some spots we can fill in, so if you didn't get a place to sit, we're so glad that you're here. It is back to school weekend, and so that means tax free. Come on, somebody does not mean tithe free. So don't think. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. I'm just. But it also means back to schedules and it also means hot. So it does not always feel like this. In East Texas. It's normally really, really nice for about six weeks a year, but it is, it is past preheat. We're on full bake mode right now. Whatever you're cooking, Lord, it is, it is crispy. We're ready to be delivered. Grab your Bibles, if you would. We're going to spend some time in the book of Exodus, Exodus, chapter 19 as we continue on with our series. All about the things that we put on our walls. If you'll notice, in our, in our lobby, we have four big signs on the wall. They say, no God, find freedom, discover purpose and make a difference. More than just slogans on our wall, there, there's some meaning behind it. It shows us what we value because what we put on our walls shows people what we value. And maybe you've never thought about it that way. And in your home, it's just not just the way I decorated, but it kind of shows us something about your personality and what's in, what's special to you about your own home. So I don't know what kind of home you grew up in, but the, the, the decoration in your, in your, in your home, your childhood home, it sticks in your mind. It smells, it smells. A very particular smell. Have you ever walked into a room and you're like this, this smells like home. This reminds me of something. It, it, it takes me back. For some of us that grew up in the, in the 80s and the, in the 70s and even in the 90s, if you grew up in the, in the church circles, your house was more than likely decorated with something from home interior or wicker. Nobody. Home interior. Where you at? Let me see. You're just ashamed of it. That's what it is. You're still. You just say, but you know it. Some of you had footprints in the sand up on the wall. Come on, you're like, no, we only had Thomas Kincaid paintings and Norman Rockwell's. Well, we didn't live in that world. We couldn't afford that. We had wicker from garage sales. That's what we had. And home interior, that was, hand me down that it is what it is, but it kind of shows us the things that we value and what we want to show people about ourselves. You know, maybe your, your house was decorated with a rebel flag on the wall. I don't know your life, but I know that here there are some things that we value. And we talk about what it means to, to know God and how it is so critical for us to have a relationship with the Lord where we, where we know that we know him. Not just about him, not just some facts. We don't just have some scriptures that we can pull out to combat some situation and prove why somebody's wrong. We really want to know him more than just an experience. We want a relationship with God. Then we've talked about what it means to find freedom, to get free from our hurts and habits and hangups from the trauma and all the things that causes us to be less than what God created us to be. God wants to deal with your yesterdays. He wants to deal with your issues. He doesn't want to leave you the same way that he found you. You're not supposed to spend the rest of your life with walking in regret and shame and bitterness. God wants to set you free from that stuff. And this week we move to number three, discovering purpose. What does that mean, to discover purpose? More than just a kind of a catchy thing that you put up on the wall. But to discover purpose is very important in the life of every believer because our world has an idea of what your purpose is. And our world will tell you this is how you find your purpose. It'll tell you really dumb things like follow your heart, because it always knows. My heart wants to order a pizza at midnight. This is not, this is not what I want to be following. The Bible says that my heart is deceitfully wicked. My Bible tells us that to be led by my emotions is going to lead me to a place that's not good. But just follow your heart like, are you kidding me? And they tell you, look deep within yourself like, no, myself is the root of all of my issues. I don't give good advice to me perhaps to discover why God made me the way that he made me and why God made you the way that he made you. The answer is not deep within yourself, but to look to our creator and say, lord, what do you want for me to be? I found that if you don't know who God has created you to be, if you don't know your own purpose, you will spend your life serving somebody else's purpose. If you don't know the vision that God has for your life, you will spend your life serving somebody else's vision. But thankfully, when we go back to God's word, he is very clear about the vision that he has for his people. He sees things in you that you don't see. And the limits that people place upon us are not necessarily the limits that God would say, no, no, no, no, no. That's not who I created you to be. So I think one of the cruelest things that religion has ever done to people is to tell people you have a purpose. God created you on purpose, for purpose. And then they never tell you how to figure out what that is. They dangle some carrot out on a stick in front of you. They tell you, I'll come to church, we'll tell you how to figure out what your purpose is, but you never figure out what that is. And if the world doesn't know, if I sure don't know, and if churches are not telling us, how do we figure out what God made us for? And what are we supposed to do? Inside of each of us is a need to belong to something bigger, to accomplish something that only God could lay out for each of us. There's something stirring in every human heart, like life must be more than just what I limit myself to now. When you're a younger kid, of course, you have these ideas of what you're going to be and what your purpose might be. And then you. You hit about 55 or 60 and you're like, you know what? That sounds uncomfortable. I like my life. My purpose right now is to sit in my easy chair and watch murder mysteries. That's. That's my purpose. Somewhere between about 6 years old and about 66 years old, some of your dreams start to die when you start living in the real world, in reality. But could it be that there. There is more? Whether you're 5 years old or 155 years old, could it be that if I'm still breathing, then God's not done with me that there could be some things that I don't understand about God's purpose for my life. Follow your heart. Look deep within yourself. No, no, no, no. Let's look deep into God's word and see what is your word saying. And so in this part of the story, in Exodus 19, God leads His people out of Egypt through the wilderness. And God begins to speak things to them that I'm not sure that they could have believed. God begins to define them and speak purpose over them. Now remind yourself that they had spent 430 years in slavery. It's difficult when you that's all that you've ever known for 400 years. And then God says something different. But pick it up. In verse three, God speaks these words to Moses. It says, then Moses went up to God and the Lord said, this is what I want you to say to my people. This is what you're going to speak over them. By the way, this is about three months now. They've been traveling. Speak these words over my people Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. He says, I'm going to remind you I saved you and I brought you out and I did it with incredible miracles. Remember where I brought you from. Remember the things I did for you. And he says, I did it for a reason. God begins to redefine them in this moment. He says this now, if you fully obey me and you keep my covenant, God says, I want you to know me. That's the purpose. I want you to know my ways. I want you to get to know me. Follow me. Listen to me. I've got a better plan for your life than to live in slavery. He said, I want you to fully obey my covenant and you will be my treasured possession. Those had to be interesting words for a person that had lived their entire life in slavery to hear. Treasured possession. I'm a slave. I'm subhuman to a lot of people in this culture. Remind yourself that a slave was property. That could be done with as they saw fit. And God is saying, you're not a slave. You're my treasured possession. You are not who you think you are. You are not defined by what the labels say. You will be my treasured possession. God says, although the her, the whole earth, belongs to me, it's all mine. Here's what you're going to be. You're going to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. You're going to take a group of slaves and make them into a nation. Oh, not just a nation. A holy nation. Holy meaning set apart. You're not going to be like anybody else. You're going to be special. You're going to be different. You have a purpose. You're going to be a kingdom of priests. God says this. These are the words I want you to speak over my people. You tell them what I said. Moses is like. They're not going to understand that that doesn't make any sense to us. What are you doing? There are things that God speaks to Moses about the Israelite people, that he still speaks thousands of years later upon every single person who has trusted him as their Lord and Savior. You are the people of God. And God's hope is that he could call you out of a life of sin and shame and darkness and regret. And he say, now let me tell you who you are and why I brought you out. So here's three things that I think are so critical for us to understand as believers today why we need to take discovering our purpose so seriously. Here's the first thing I want you to see. Number one, we aren't just saved from something. We're saved for something. It's not just from, but it's for. God did it for a reason. There's a great quote from Mark Twain, says the two greatest days in a person's life are the day you're born and the day that you figure out why. Now, for me, I was convinced from the very beginning that God had called me and ordained me to be the next Elvis Presley. To be the next big rock star. I must be because I'm talented. I have giftings and abilities. I'm a musician. I'm a singer. That must mean that I am called to be a rock star. Thank you, Lord. The world is going to worship me. But when God saved me, when he redeemed me, he restored me. When he began to work on my yesterdays and my hurts and my betrayals and my wounds and my shame and my regret and my sin and my darkness. When he started pulling those things out of my heart, I recognized that what I thought was my purpose wasn't God's purpose for me. I had it twisted in my mind. Now, maybe for you, your hope when you were 5 or 10 or 12 years old was not to be a big rock star or to be a superstar or celebrity, but maybe your hope was to be a professional athlete. Then you realize, I'm 5 foot 6. I'm not playing the NBA. My dreams are dying. I need to let that go. I remember the very first time I went out for the high school basketball team and I could play pretty well and I thought that they don't make a lot of 6 foot 1 Mexicans. I'm going to dominate. And the very first game, I remember, if you've never been like tomahawk dunked on posterized as the kids would call it, like you're cooked in front of your, your whole high school. I realized this is not God's calling for my life. I have, I have missed it. Not a lot of Mexicans in the NBA. I'm just saying, very limited. Perhaps this is not what God has called me to do. What happens? Please hear me. What happens when you, when you don't make it? What happens when you don't live up to your potential? What happens when you don't get signed, when you don't get picked? What happens when you don't get the job? What happens when the marriage is over? What happens when the dreams for your life fall apart? When you don't become a celebrity, when you don't become whatever version of success people have put on you. What happens when you don't make enough? Here's another question. What happens if you do? Then what? You ought to see the overwhelming statistics about the people that go broke when they've won the lottery, the suicide rate when you have it all handed to you. Could it be that our worldly definition of success and purpose and making it is not the goal? God says, I saved you from something for something. Notice what God did not say. He did not say, it is for freedom that I have set you free. Now just go and enjoy your freedom. It's not like some bird that God fixes his wings and said, now just fly and be free. No, no, no, no. God didn't do that to you. He didn't say, I saved you and I set you free. Now go live your life. No. Deliverance was never the destination. Deliverance is not a goal. It's a process that God walks us through where he pulls things out of our life that you need to deal with. And freedom is important, but freedom is not the destination. God begins to speak things over Israel that they needed to hear that must have sounded strange. He says, you're more than what you do. Remind yourself that they were slaves. And a slave's value in this culture is in what they produce. You are a good slave or a bad slave based upon how much you get accomplished, how much you get built, how much you can Bring in how much you can cook, how much you can clean, how much you. You're a slave. A good slave is based upon what they do. And God says, you're not a slave. You're a kingdom of priests. You're a holy nation. You're my treasured possession. You're not a slave, by the way. Look at me. That's why religion doesn't work. Religion says, oh, to get to God, you got to do this. You got to do this. That makes you slaves. God says, you are no longer a slave. You're a child of God. You are part of my family. This is who you are now. You're not a slave. You're a son. It reminds us of something that we need to hear as we're talking about discovering the purpose. It's the mindset of, I'm not what I do. I am who he says I am. See, purpose begins with identity, not activity. When you meet somebody new and they say, hey, who are you? You might introduce yourself by your name, and then customarily, you'll say, I am. And you give your title, you give your job, you give your. How you produce, how you make a difference to the world. This is how I make money. I. I am a doctor. I'm an attorney. I'm a mechanic. I'm a plumber. I do this. I'm unemployed. I'm a college student. I'm a kid. Because we measure ourselves by what we do. God measures you by who you are and not who you are to others, who you are to Him. Purpose begins with identity, not activity. You are not a slave. You are not what you produce. You are a son. You are a daughter. Your value comes from the fact that you are. You are mine. Here's what I want you to see. God loves you not for what you do for him, but for what Christ did for you. What Christ did for you. He calls us near. He calls us family. He brings us closer. Purpose is not found in what I accomplish. It's in who I am. It's my identity. When you get a new identity, when you get a new mindset, when you understand who you are, purpose begins to open its doors to you. But without that, you'll spend your life following somebody else's. You still with me? Everybody? We okay. It's critical that we discover the purpose that God has for each of us. Now, my purpose is different from yours, but you have one. Here's the second key. Number two. Our design reveals our destiny. Our design reveals our destiny. How God made you. Once again, your Design is a little different from mine, but here's one thing that every single human ever born all has. Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us this, that God has set eternity in the human heart. God has set something bigger than our lifespan inside of every single heart that has ever been created. It draws us to something that is more powerful, that's bigger than us. Inside of you, inside of me is a longing, a desire for something more. And this is where the world tries to fill that void by saying, just follow your heart and figure out what that is. Just look within yourself and figure out what that is. Just. Just look at your opportunities and just take the best one that pays you the most money and try to get a 401k. Is that the goal of my life? To just have more toys than my neighbor? Is that my purpose? If so, I'll just move to where there are no neighbors, right? Win. But your design reveals your destiny. Here's. Here's. Here's one thing that we see over and over. And from beginning to the end, every time God moves upon something, someone powerful. In this scripture, you see that God has purposed them for something special and significant, but it's also very specific to them. Nehemiah comes to mind. The Bible says that when Nehemiah heard about the walls of Jerusalem, he. He wept and he broke. The walls were broken down. The city was lying in ruins. I don't see anybody crying. No one just lost it over that. Why? That ain't your destiny. It is not the purpose that God has put upon your life to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, but it was Nehemiah's, and it broke his heart. And something stirred inside of him at that point. He's just a cup bearer to the king. He's like, I'm. I'm pretty much just a servant. But his design begins to reveal his destiny. Moses, the Bible says that he gets into a situation where he watches two Egyptians beat an Israelite, a Hebrew slave. Now, could they do that legally? Absolutely. They do what they want. They're considered property. But something stirs inside the heart of Moses. Like, this is wrong. That's a human being. This is. This is an Israelite. These are my people. This is a Hebrew. What are you doing? And the thought of mistreating a slave overwhelmed him and outraged him. Because his design reveals his destiny. Hello, Paul. When he walks into Athens, he. He sees that they're just worshiping God after God after God after God. Which religion are y' all following? All of them. Just to be sure Right. Just to cover all the bases, we're going to pray to all the gods. And something stirs up in his heart. He's like, they, that's the dumbest thing of all time. Let me tell you about the unknown God. Let me tell you about. Let me tell you about the one that you don't know, who has real power, real authority. Something stirs inside of the heart of Paul because he sees a bunch of people worshiping a lot of things that can produce no help for them. It doesn't necessarily stir your heart, but it stirred him. Here's the thing. We want you to understand that God has created you and purposed you and designed you in a certain way, that your design begins to reveal your destiny. And once you start recognizing that God has given me some spiritual gifts, God has placed something inside of my heart for something more. I recognize that it's bigger than me. I recognize that what God has called me to do is not just to make me famous, not just to make me a celebrity, not to just blow me up. Right? This is. This is not God's purpose. I recognize that God says this to his people. You will be for me. He never says, you will be for you. It's not for your glory, it's for mine. That begins to change some things when we recognize that our design begins to reveal our destiny. The way that God has purposed each of us is to bring him glory, not ourselves. And therein lies the problem for many people. God, you want me to bring you glory, but what about me? If I bring you glory, can you bring me money? If I bring you glory, can you bring me a little bit of fame? Can you break off a little something for your boy? Knowing who you are and the things that God has placed inside of your heart begins to unlock purpose and destiny for you. And it's bigger than you. And it's never for your glory. It's for him. God doesn't share his glory, but he has designed each of us specifically to bring him much glory. And he shows us things about our design, about our passions. Now, the world will tell you. Just follow your passions, like, nah, don't do that. You're probably going to go to prison. That's. That's not good for you. But your. Your passions can reveal purpose if they're. If they're redeemed. So God saves you. He sets you free, begins to change your heart. What you want is no longer what you want. It's what. What he wants. And all of a sudden, those. Those passions get redeemed God restores them to their original purpose. The reason why he made you this way was not to bring glory to yourself, not to put yourself in prison, but to bring glory to him. That becomes a holy thing. Now we start understanding. Ah, what makes me tick or what ticks me off. And could it be that the Lord is using that to produce things that are my purpose? Here's what we know. Purpose isn't invented, it's discovered. It's something you're going to have to want, you're going to have to look for, you're gonna have to desire. Lord, I want your purposes for my life because I've recognized that me, with all of my knowledge and all of my abilities and all of my gifts and all of my talents, if I don't have you breathing on this, if this is not for your glory, I'm gonna mess it up. I'm gonna hurt people. I might build a kingdom to myself. I might be praised by people. I might make it according to their human standards. But I've missed the purpose that God made me for. Purpose is not invented, it's discovered. Heard a great story this past week. I don't have a ton of time to share it, but there's a guy named Helge Meyer, and this was a while back, he was watching television, and he's a strong believer, loves the Lord, and his heart began to break when he saw what was happening in Bosnia. For those of you that remember the war that was happening in Bosnia, which was horrible, and lots of buildings were blown up and families were displaced or killed, and there was no way to get aid into these people that were suffering greatly. They had tons of mines everywhere, and they had warlords and military and gangs and all kinds of crazy things that makes it really difficult to get any kind of help to these people. And he's sitting there and he's thinking, surely somebody's going to. Gonna do something, right? And so he calls the United Nations. Like, he steps out in faith. I'm going to call the UN and say, can I help? Can I. Can I go and can I find a way to bring some, some medicine, can I deliver some, some food to these people that are starving? And they're like, who are you? Like, I'm. I'm Helga Meyer, and I'd like to, to do that. I want to help. I am ex military, so I'm not just on a suicide mission, but surely I can help somebody. And they're like, stop calling us. We're the United Nations. We don't need your help, you know. But something started inside of him. He found that like, I'm passionate about this. Somebody needs to do something. Week after week after week goes by and these people are suffering. And it breaks his heart. He finally calls the air force, the U.S. air Force. He's like, look, the UN says I can't do anything about it. Will you guys help me? And they're like, what do you got? He's like, I got an 86 Camaro. Like, let's call our rednecks your tax dollars. This is the true story. Your tax dollars outfitted his 86 Camaro with stealth technology, with anti landmine stuff. He put infrared and night vision inside this thing. The never flat tires put a brand new engine in it and they're like, yeehaw, America, go for it. For the next five years, he delivers supplies into war torn Bosnia. Medicine and food, bringing aid to people who had no help coming from anybody else. He writes a book about it. You ought to check it out sometime. It's kind of cool. Called God's Rambo. And by the way, he still has the car. It's like, watch the episode of Knight Rider or something. But I'm like, what in the world? Like this guy just took our tax dollars and put it together for something useful. Like I'm about that. You're bringing hope to people that have no hope. That's where I want my money to go. He still has the car. And he says, everybody loves this car except for my wife. She's like, that is an old piece of junk. He's like, this is special to me. Here's the thing. He, he didn't suddenly become somebody else. When he discovered his purpose. He, he discovered that what it was already inside of him. God had put it inside of him to do something for the sake of somebody else. And you have it inside of you as well. It's not for your glory, it's for his. And your design begins to reveal your destiny. God has purpose for you. And it's bigger than you. And it's bigger than just to make you more money. When God calls you, when God places his hand upon your life, when you start submitting to that, that doesn't automatically come with a suit coat and a microphone. Doesn't come with a big stage. Remind yourself, like 90% of the people in the world would rather literally die than to do what I'm doing. But I don't have panic attacks before I walk out here on Sunday morning. As a matter of fact, I don't even sleep On Sunday nights. Cause I'm excited to do it. But my design reveals my destiny. If we passed around a microphone and said, you're gonna preach, some of you would be like, I would literally rather just end it all right now. I'm never doing that. Others would be like, no, no, no. This is my time to shine. I'm naming names. I'm calling out sin. I don't like her. I don't like you. You're messed up, like, so. That's the reason why this ain't your church. Not everyone was called to do that. But you've been specifically purposed. When you submit to the Lord, the things that make you tick, the things that tick you off, when those things get redeemed, those passions begin to reveal your purpose. The design begins to reveal your destiny. Here's the third and final point. I'll leave you with this number three. Purpose is discovered. Look at me. By serving others right before the cross, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, Jesus Christ himself, wraps a towel around his waist and begins to wash feet. And his disciples said, you are. You're the Messiah. What are you doing? He said, you don't understand what I'm doing. You're going to understand later. Peter says, you're not washing my feet. Get up. And he says, you don't understand what I'm doing, Peter. But if I can't do this for you, you have no part in me. He said, I'm here to serve. The Son of Man came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, as an example to each of us. Your purpose is a lot less about making you famous than God getting glory through how you serve. It's not about you. It's about what God can do through you. So God tells his people, you are to be for me a kingdom of priests, my treasured possession. Interesting that God says, a kingdom of priests. And if you know the story, you know God has. Has called Aaron and the whole Levitical priesthood. Aaron and his sons become the very first priests, and they offer sacrifices of, you know, millions of bulls and goats and sheep and all that stuff. In the whole book of Exodus and numbers, God sets it all up where they're sacrificing, and they have the ark there in the holy of holies. That's great you understand that. I know what a priest is, but understand this. That doesn't happen till Exodus 28. This is before that. God's not speaking it and said, I'm calling everybody professional ministers. You're not all called to be professional pastors. He says, but you are priests. You're a priest. You're not a slave, you're a priest. What is a priest? A priest is someone that blesses the Lord and ministers to his people by representing Him. Well, each of those has specific purposes. But as a priest you're called to have a great relationship with the Lord, to understand him, to know him, to be set free of your yesterdays, to be able to walk holy and sanctified, to be upright before him and to represent his ways to those that don't know him as well as you do. That's a priest. A priest's job was never self serving. It's God serving, it's people serving. And God says, this is who you are. You're not slaves, you're a treasured possession. You're doing it for a different reason, because it's who you are, because of whose you are. You see, God's plan has always been to turn ordinary people into his representatives. And this changes the way that you look at your job on Monday morning. If I'm here to represent the Lord, then how am I going to treat my customers? How am I going to speak to people? How am I going to be a blessing today? How am I going to serve my boss? As unto the Lord? How do I do that? When you begin to submit those things to the Lord, when you give him your Mondays and say, lord, I want to walk in the purposes that you have for my life today, it'll change the way you treat people. First Peter 4:10 says each of you, not some of you, not the professional ministers, not those called to the ministry. No, no, no. Each of us, every single one. He says we are to use whatever gift God has given us to build great kingdoms for yourself, to become a celebrity, to become a rock star, to become the next big. No, no, no. He says, to serve others. You are gifted. You are called, you are anointed. What should I do with that? Serve. Humble yourself. Serve for what? Your representative of God. You're faithful stewards of God's grace, all its various forms. God, what am I supposed to do with my life? Serve. We have a class. By the way, if you don't know your spiritual gifts, if you don't know the things that God has planted in your life, we want to help you do that. We have a specific class designed every single Sunday, right across in our youth room. It starts at 12 o', clock, the same as it always is every single Sunday. My wife will be there to help you walk. You through that, we have tests designed to. For you to understand. Oh, this is why God made me this way. And how can I use that to bring glory to God? This is the part of our church that we say we value this. That's why we put it up on our walls. Because every single person needs to know why God put you here. Or you'll spend your life following your own passions, your own lusts, your own desires, following your heart. You know where it leads you into s. Let me follow what I want to do and be my best self, and it walks you right into death. Let me be somebody. And God calls us to be born again. Let me tell you who you are, who you're born to be. Let me tell you about my purpose for your life. Now, some of us would, of course, say, lord, okay, Lord, show me the. Show me the whole big picture. Show me the purpose and then let me decide if I want to do that. If he showed you the whole picture, most of you would say, no. I don't think I'm going to be able to make enough money doing that. I don't think that my parents are going to respect me if I was to do. Here's the thing. God's purposes for your life are bigger than you. And you're going to be shocked with what fills your cup. You say, lord, I'm so fulfilled. What a life. Because I'm honoring you and doing something that matters. Let me say it this way. Don't wait to discover your entire purpose before you do something purposeful. Something purposeful. Because the gifts that God has given you, if you're not sure what those are, please hear me. Gifts are discovered in motion. You're going to have to take a step. You have to start believing that you are who God says you are. You're not a slave. It's not about what you do, about who you are, what Christ did for you, to bring you close, to raise you up, not to just set you free, but to walk you into your destiny. It's different than mine. It's different than every other person in this room. But it's all for the same, same God, to bring him glory. Remember many years ago, I walked into a church as a recovering addict, filled with shame and regret, filled with confusion. Thought I knew God. Thought I understood what it meant to be a believer. And I walked into a church and I asked the pastor for a meeting. And I cannot imagine how that room was big enough to fit my ego. I said to the pastor, I said, I know you don't Know me, but I am. I'm a big deal. I'm really good. You think? I'm paraphrasing. I'm really talented. And, you know, pretty much if you want me to take over, I would be happy to do that because I'm anointed and I'm so thankful. So thankful that he loved me enough to be kind to me in that moment, that he loved me enough to be honest with me. He said, I would love for you to be involved in what we're doing. Would you come on Wednesday night and let's show you how you can benefit the kingdom of God and how you can be a part here? And I'm like, sure, I'll take over Wednesday nights. That's not a problem. I'll start small. And on Wednesday night, I showed up and he said, here is what we need you to do. Would you be a door greeter in the youth room? No, that's for the little people. I'm talented. I am frontline talent. I am lowering my. Just to be here is a. Is a big deal for you. And I thought, well, okay, Lord, I did tell you I would do whatever you asked me to do. I didn't think it was going to be this, but surely I'm more gifted than just opening a door for a bunch of smelly kids. It changed my life. I will never regret, never regret humbling myself to serve people that could give me back nothing. I'll never regret the times I've spent in Nicaragua serving people that were so sick. Never regret going to places that other people would turn their nose up at. Those are some of the most proud moments of my life. I never thought that God had something bigger for me that included humbling myself. When you submit those parts of your life to God, you discover who you are. And it's not about what I can produce for him. It's about what he did for me. And out of the overflow of my gratefulness, I lay my gifts at his feet. Say, I'm happy to serve. The question is, what are you willing to do? Is that beneath you? You're here to come to church and say, entertain me. Give me something good. My heart for you would be to say, this is not that kind of church. Let me pull the curtain back and be 100% honest with you. I want you to serve. I want you to know God. I want you to find freedom from your yesterdays. I want you to discover who God made you to be so that you can make a difference with the rest of your life. And the time that you have left, that's God's promise to you. You are not a slave. You're a kingdom of priests. You're a holy nation. You're God's treasured possession. And it's time that you live like it. Live up to your high calling by humbling yourself to serve. Would you bow your heads with me? Father, we thank you for your word. It brings life, it brings light, it brings hope to us. It brings correction where we need it. And, Father, we need your correction. Father, we recognize that your word is speaking to us right where we are today. And calling us higher by bringing us lower, you've called us to serve. We're not serving as slaves. We're serving as sons. Because we're grateful for what you've done in us, through us and for us. We're grateful people. We serve. We give back, Father. We don't just give our talents and our gifts. We give our treasures. We give financially because we're submitted to you. We want to be a part of what you're doing, not to build a kingdom to ourselves. That's why we give. You're a good God. And you have good plans for me. You have good plans for us. We step into them today to your purpose, for our lives. And now, with heads bowed and eyes closed, maybe you came here today and you're saying, pastor, I don't have a relationship with Jesus. I don't know if I'm saved. I don't know what that means. My friend, I'm so glad that you're here, and I will not embarrass you in any way. I would never do that. But you need to make a decision. It's time for you to meet God. It's time for you to have a relationship with him, to ask for forgiveness of your sins. And I'm going to help you do that for others in this place. You might say, pastor, I was raised in church. I did the things. But I've gotten so far away from God. I need to come home. I'm so far from God. I've been running for far too long. My friend, it's time to come home. And I want to help you. Just like somebody helped me one time. I love you enough to tell you the truth. And I promise you I'm not here to embarrass you in any way. I'm not going to do that. But you need this. So I'm going to lead a prayer and I'm going to ask that you repeat the words of this prayer. We're going to start there. Just a prayer. The Bible calls it the prayer of faith, a prayer of repentance. And I'm going to help you. All of us are going to pray this prayer out loud together so you don't feel singled out in any way. But this is your moment to make this declaration to the Lord. Let me help you do it. So, believers, let's pray this together. Just say, jesus, I believe you're the Son of God. I believe that you came and I believe that you died. I believe that you were born again. You were raised to life so that I could be forgiven of my sins. So please forgive me and I'll give you the rest of my life in Jesus name. And with heads bowed and eyes closed with no one else looking around, if that was you and you made a decision to pray that prayer, do me a favor. Would you look up at me from where you are? Would you lift up your hand, say, that was me, Pastor, I prayed that prayer. That was me. Good. If that was you today, I want you to know that there's a. There's a phone number popping up right behind me on the screen. That number is for you. I want to ask you to text me. Text the words I prayed to that number, and I'll send you some things that will help you understand what just happened in your heart and what to do next. I'm super proud of you. The decision that you just made. High Ridge family, go ahead and look up at me if you would, and let's stand to our feet together as we prepare to dismiss. And I'm going to have our elders and their wives join me right in front of this platform to be available to pray for you. If you're walking through a dark season, if you're struggling with something, if there's something on your mind and on your heart that you need God to help with, we would love to pray for you. So these guys will stay right here as the service ends to make themselves available. They're amazing prayer warriors, and we love each and every one of them. Even Claudia, we love. I'm just kidding. Just seeing if you're paying attention. They would love to pray for you. They're amazing people. And if you need prayer, please let them pray for you. What'd you say, Mark? Let me pray for you. Hey, let's pray for my Dallas Cowboys. Would you please? Let's just link hands across the aisle. This is our year. What are you talking about? Let me pray for you and bless you, Lord. Would you bless my friends with an incredible week. Would you pour out your favor, your grace and your mercy upon them? Would you bless their families? Would you bless their finances, bless their jobs? Lord, bless their relationship with their children and their parents. Lord, bless them. I pray in Jesus mighty name and all of us said together, Amen. God bless you as you go. I hope you have an awesome week. [00:43:36] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening. [00:43:47] Speaker B: If you want to be a part [00:43:48] Speaker A: of our online community, connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv or you can check out our [email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its work, visit highridgelv.com give we appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will see you next time.