A New Heart – Part 3: A Heart with Purpose

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise him, all creatures, here below.

Praise him above the heavenly host.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Father, God, we just want to say thank you

for the opportunity to come to worship once again,

Lord, to be a church, to be surrounded by other believers,

and just the opportunity to lift high the name of Jesus.

Father, as we come to you this morning,

Lord, we are so thankful that we get to come today and give you praise.

Lord, we just lift up Caleb Overcast to you,

and Lord, we're so thankful that you spared his life,

and God, that you watched over him in his accident this past week.

And Lord, as he's still in the hospital recovering from being hit by a car,

we just ask that you would be with his body.

Lord, he was very sore, several broken bones,

and God, we just pray that you would help him to heal.

Lord, that you would continue to watch over him,

and Lord, in just the midst of this,

remind him that you have a purpose and a plan for his life.

Lord, we thank you for being with Ms. Lella Rea

and helping her and Sis be able to come back to church

for the first time in many months.

Lord, we can pray that you continue to be with them,

and Lord, for so many of our other people who have had physical issues

and struggling, God, we just pray that you continue to touch their bodies

and help them in these different phases of life.

And Father, as we come before you this morning,

I pray that you would speak powerfully into our hearts,

and that Lord, we would be a people who would be willing to listen,

and that we would allow you to work and do anything that you need to do in our life.

But I pray for every person who's in this room,

anybody who will watch the video,

anybody who will listen to the podcast later on,

that God, our hearts would just be tender and receptive of you

and your leading and your will in your ways.

Father, we simply want to serve you and be pleasing to you,

and as we gather this morning to worship the one true God,

and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for us on the cross.

God, we humbly pray that you would visit with us in this place

and that you would help us to be pleasing and honoring to you

in all that we do and say.

Father, we love you this morning.

We're so thankful to be here,

and we ask all this in the precious and holy name of Jesus Christ,

all God's people say.

Amen, you may be seated.

Well, it is good to see everybody this morning.

We have been talking about this need to have a new heart.

And so our first week in our series,

we talked about the need for the desire.

You know, for us as people,

there has to be a desire in our life for us to have a new heart,

to be given this new heart in Jesus Christ.

And then last week we talked about the transplant,

just this understanding of coming to this point in our lives

where we realize we are in such desperate need for God

to do this work in us, to make us new,

to fill us with the Spirit,

that we have to come to the point that many people do

whenever they get ready to have a transplant.

It's better for us to lay down on that table

and offer ourselves and allow that surgery,

that dangerous surgery to take place,

because we know that our life is not what it should be

and it could be so much better if this is successful.

And so we have to step out in faith

and allow God to come into our lives

and literally take out,

from the passage of Scripture we read last week,

take out our old, stony, hard hearts

and replace it with new, tender, receptive hearts

that will listen to the Lord and be obedient to Him.

And so we're continuing to talk about that.

Today, we're talking about what happens

whenever that takes place,

and that we receive a heart with a purpose

when God comes in, when He gives you His heart

and He gives you His Spirit,

He also gives you His purpose,

which is a very wonderful thing for us to be able to have,

is to have that purpose in our lives.

And as people, one of the things you find

as you just sit back and you watch people

and you realize this the older you get in your life,

we're constantly looking for purpose.

We're constantly looking for meaning.

We want to do something significant.

We want to do something valuable.

I think one of the greatest fears

that any just normal person has

is to just meander through this world

doing mediocre things

and leaving this world

and nobody even realizing that you're going

whenever it's time for you to go.

That's one of our greatest fears

is to just think like we were just average Joe's normal

and that we didn't do anything of significance.

But the awesome thing about God is,

is that whenever He gives you His heart

and He gives you His Spirit,

He also gives you His purpose.

And the great thing about Jesus is

is that whenever He came into this world

2000 years ago, He absolutely turned the world upside down.

And He didn't do it by inventing things.

He didn't do it by starting a business.

He didn't do it by selling.

He simply did it by going out

and hanging out with poor, sinful people,

preaching the word of God,

caring for people and loving them right where they were.

And today we still date, this date, 2025

based off of the year that Jesus Christ stepped into our world

and flipped it upside down and changed it for the good.

And as Jesus had that purpose,

He invites you and me to come alongside of Him

with a new heart, with His Spirit living inside of us

to share in that same purpose,

to share in that same meaning,

that same greatness that He was able to have in His life.

And I want to read a passage of Scripture to you

from Hebrews chapter 8 verses 8 through 12.

Hebrews 8:8–12

And this is a really beautiful passage.

Now we don't know who wrote Hebrews,

but the author in this book is quoting

from a passage of Scripture in the Old Testament

from Jeremiah chapter 31.

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

Jeremiah lived 600 and something years.

We think this was probably around 627 years

before Christ was born, before He came into our world.

God gave this message to Jeremiah the prophet

to give to the people of Israel.

And it's prophesying about the coming of Jesus,

627 years before He came.

And the author of Hebrews is quoting this.

So you see this in Jeremiah 31

and you also see this in Hebrews 8.

So let's read it together.

But when God found fault with the people,

He said,

The day is coming, says the Lord,

when I will make a new covenant

with the people of Israel and Judah.

The covenant will not be

like the one I made with their ancestors.

When I took them by the hand

and led them out of the land of Egypt,

they did not remain faithful to my covenant,

so I turned my back on them, says the Lord.

But this is the new covenant.

I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord.

I will put my laws in their minds

and I will write them on their hearts.

I will be their God and they will be my people.

And they will not need to teach their neighbors,

nor will they need to teach their relatives,

saying, You should know the Lord,

for everyone from the least to the greatest

will know me already,

and I will forgive their wickedness,

and I will never again remember their sins.

So point number one this morning

that I want us to get from this passage

is that God gives a promise.

God gives us a promise in the midst of this thing.

Now, this is one of the greatest things about God

that we have to take into consideration.

Twice we read in Scripture

where God comes down from heaven

to interact with people

and call us into a covenant and an agreement with Him.

There's nothing in the world that ever indicates

that we as people ever had the ability

or even the desire to go up to heaven

and approach God and say, Hey God,

we realize naturally that our lives are screwed up

and we're sinners and we want to change.

And so therefore we want to make this deal with you

that if you send your son to die for us,

then we'll live for him.

Like that didn't happen.

But God came down in the Old Testament first

on Mount Sinai with the people of Israel

after He took them by the hand,

led them out of captivity,

took them into freedom in the wilderness

and came to them at Mount Sinai and said,

This is my covenant that I'm willing to share with you

that you can join in, that you can agree to.

These are the terms of the covenant.

Are you willing to do this?

And the people of Israel understood

because they saw God's presence on the mountain

and they were afraid of it.

They saw how wonderful and amazing God was

and at that moment they had realized

all that God had done for them

and they willingly went into that covenant saying,

Yes, we agree to these terms,

but the bad part is, is that in that covenant

they were unable to keep the terms of the covenant.

And so God says, I'm going to form a new covenant.

This time when I make the covenant with the people,

we're going to do it in a way

so whenever they agree to the terms of this covenant

they will have the ability

to be able to keep the terms of the covenant.

And so when God sends Jesus Christ into this world

to save us from our sins,

to have this relationship with God,

to have fellowship with God,

there's a promise that comes with it.

And in this promise,

we get to have fellowship with God in this life

and we get to have fellowship with God in eternity.

And that's something that we could not have before.

You look back at the Old Testament covenant,

they followed God, they entered into that covenant,

but Moses was the one who was doing the fellowship with God.

The people of Israel were always observing from a distance.

But in the new covenant,

God has called every single one of us

to come and join with Him,

with a new heart,

with His Spirit living within us,

to have fellowship with God

and to walk with Him in this life

and in the one to come in eternity.

It's a wonderful promise.

And there's nothing that any of us could do to earn that.

It is a gift from God that He came down,

He initiated,

and most importantly, He paid for it.

There's nothing that you and I can give.

And we have to be really careful in this

because I don't know about you.

But in life, we go through various seasons.

And in my spiritual life,

I feel like I've gone through a lot of various seasons

in my spiritual life.

And there's been times where there's been things

that I felt God lead me to give up in this world, right?

He calls us to give up things.

He calls us to be living sacrifices.

And there's been moments in my walk with Christ

where I've given up things,

and then I look at life, I look at where I am,

and I don't like my circumstances.

I didn't like my relationships, I didn't like my job,

I didn't like, you know, financial situations,

I didn't like this, I didn't like that, you know,

just whatever, whatever in a moment in life.

There were things that I was not pleased with.

And there would be times where I would say,

okay, God, we need to have a little bit of a conversation.

I've given all this up for you.

I've sacrificed this, I've done this,

I've done exactly what your words called me to do.

I've tried to be obedient to the best

that I can possibly be with your help,

because that's important with God's help

because we can't do it on our own.

And I'm not particularly satisfied

with the way things are going in my life.

And sometimes it's believed,

so this is for you who are already Christians this morning.

Like you believe in Jesus, you're walking with Him.

I think it's really important for us at times in our life

to take a step back in a deep breath,

rub the fuzziness and sleep out of our eyes a little bit,

and to remind ourselves that when we entered

into this covenant with Jesus Christ,

the only promise that He offered you

was fellowship with Him in this world

and fellowship with Him in eternal life.

And then when you start looking at everything

that He's called you to do that you agreed on

for your terms of the covenant was

that you would be a living sacrifice,

that you would give up the things of the world,

that you would be willing to lay down your life

both figuratively and literally for the name of Jesus Christ

as so many believers and disciples and servants of Christ

has done before us to carry on the church

and the ministry of the gospel and the kingdom of God

so that we can be here and do what we're doing today.

You have not been called to do anything more

or anything less than anyone who has ever come before us.

And so this is why Scripture talks greatly about

the joy that Christians are supposed to have in our lives

despite the situation and circumstances.

And if we have the attitude this morning

because I've had that attitude

that I have sacrificed, Lord, and I have given this up

and I've done this and I've done that

and I'm not particularly satisfied with where my life is right now

we do not have the right heart

or the right spirit living within us

because it was never a promise that God give us

that if you follow me

life's going to be flowers and rainbows forever.

In fact, it said there would be many trials,

there would be many tribulations,

there would be many sufferings

and the reward that we receive for following Christ is yet to come.

So we have to check our hearts this morning

and remind ourselves that when we decided to follow the Lord

we did so because we realized

we were the ones in desperate need of something

that we could not buy, we could not earn,

we could not fabricate or attain in any way

and it was only Christ who could give it to us.

And in Psalm chapter 49 verses 7 through 9

Psalms 49:7–9

the psalmist wrote,

Yet they cannot redeem themselves from death

by paying a ransom to God.

Redemption does not come so easily

for no one can ever pay enough

to live forever and never see the grave.

We went into a relationship with Jesus Christ

not for what we could get in this world

but so that we could be freed from this world

and what we could have in the next world to come.

That's a reminder that we need to be reminded of regularly.

This is why you see people like Paul and James

and all the other apostles who are writing

to these New Testament churches and they were saying,

look, in the midst of sufferings, be joyful.

These are chances for you to grow.

And think about this, anybody who's been a Christian

for any amount of time can tell you

that their relationship with God grew more

and they had more fellowship with God

during the most difficult times of their life

than they did during the good times.

Got some head nods but no amens.

And so the desire for us as believers,

if that is the case, if we truly believe

that He is our Savior, that He rescues us from our sins,

that we wanna walk in fellowship with God,

there should almost be a little bit of an attitude

for to welcome the adversity,

to welcome the hardships in life

because in those times that is when we tend to draw

to the Lord more and rely on Him more

and grow with Him and fellowship with Him more

during those times, we should desire that

if we truly believe that Jesus is who He says He is.

Because when you read the New Testament authors,

they were writing that that is the way it should be.

Welcome them with joy because when it comes,

we have a chance to grow.

And so we can never put this idea to the test

and we will look at our relationship with the Father

and the promises that God's given us,

we can base that God is not upholding His end of the deal

based off of worldly circumstances

because the world stinks.

You should know this by now.

Like if you're 13 or older,

you should know the world stinks.

It's hard.

Life is hard.

Relationships are hard.

Careers are hard.

Everything is hard.

It's always a challenge.

And it's never going to be perfect.

That's why Jesus offered us fellowship in this life with God,

which makes everything better.

You can be joyful in any circumstance

with fellowship with God.

It doesn't matter what circumstances are,

because on the other side, that's where the good lies.

That's where the perfection lies.

That's what we should be looking towards

because this world stinks.

And as believers in Jesus,

we should have the attitude of looking at this world

like this world is nothing.

I'm ready for that world.

We should be excited.

And you look at passages like Philippians chapter 3,

Philippians 3:7–8

verses 7 through 8, when Paul is writing.

And he says,

I once thought these things were valuable,

but now I consider them worthless

because of what Christ has done.

Yes, everything else is worthless

when compared with the infinite value

of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For His sake, I have discarded everything else

counting it all as garbage,

so I could gain Christ.

As believers, we should look at this world as garbage.

And yet it's one of the greatest struggles

we will have as Americans who believe in Jesus

to give up things in this world because we have so much.

And there are so many things in this life that are so good.

And Pastor Timmy and I were in my office this morning

and we were laughing about first world

versus third world problems.

It's kind of like it's funny what really aggravates us

and causes us to have anxiety and deal with.

But for us, we have so much

and we have like, life is so good,

we cling to it and we don't want to let it go.

But it's exactly what we're called to do.

And if you have the mindset of Paul,

as in everything in this world is garbage,

and I realize compared to Christ,

everything in this world is garbage,

then giving it up is not a sacrifice.

And that's where the attitude of the heart

and the spirit of God comes into our life

because if you profess faith in Jesus Christ

and you've been living for Him and serving Him

and you feel like you've been giving so much

and you're exhausted,

and this has been difficult for you,

your heart and your spirit is not where it should be.

I'm not saying that you're not saved.

I'm not saying that you don't have a relationship with God,

but I am telling you there's something better.

Because if the spirit of God is in your life

and if your heart is in the right place

and God has given you that new, that tender, loving heart,

there will be a change in you

that opens up your eyes and your ears

and everything else about your life where you realize,

man, all this stuff stinks.

And to give this up and to do away with these things,

because you begin to realize it's like,

man, that stuff was worthless.

Life with Christ is so much better.

My relationship with God, my fellowship with God

is so much better.

Giving up all that stuff was absolutely worth it.

And now I see, I know it was all garbage before.

Some of you are going to laugh at this,

but I'm at the ripe age of 41 now.

And for whatever reason,

I don't know if it's like 40 or 30.

I don't know.

I'm just a little more aware of I'm getting older

and life changes, world changes.

And I've contemplated regularly about just anything, everything.

Like one day I'm not going to be here.

And I was sitting in the closet like,

I wonder what's going to happen on my clothes.

It's like somebody is probably going to throw them away.

They might go to Goodwill and might go to Faith Home.

Somebody may wear them, probably not.

It's like things that we hold so dear,

nobody else even cares anything about.

And somebody else is going to have them

or the dump's going to get it.

Garbage.

So many things in our home that I like, that I appreciate.

And I would love for it to go to somebody who would appreciate it

and to think like, I'm kind of a weird dude.

There's probably not going to be many people who appreciate

the same things I appreciate.

It'll probably end up in the landfill.

It's all garbage.

One day somebody's going to drive my truck.

One day somebody's going to live in my house,

if it's still there.

It's like everything in our life that we have,

we're going to give it up anyway.

It's like you're either going to have to give it to someone else

or you're going to die

and then people are going to divide it up after you're gone,

but either way you're going to give it up.

And so why not give it up willingly?

Christ, who called you to,

because you can have fellowship and eternity with Him,

versus clinging to something that you're going to lose anyway.

It doesn't matter how much you love it.

It doesn't matter how much you painstakingly,

meticulously care for it.

It's going to go to someone else

and chances are they're not going to love it

or appreciate it half as much as you do.

Why not be willing to give it up now?

It's all garbage.

Most of the stuff that we cherish is garbage.

That old, stony heart that cannot see,

Jesus has something so much better for us

in that promise of fellowship with Him

in this world and in eternity,

so much better than what this world has to offer.

Point number two,

God gives us obedience.

And this is really important because,

you know, we talked a second ago about how

if you're trying to live for Christ on your own,

underneath your own power, your own strength,

you're going to be tired.

You're going to be exhausted.

You're going to be frustrated in your relationship with God.

It's going to happen if you're doing it on your own.

This is why it's so important to welcome God

into our lives regularly.

God, give me your heart.

God, fill me with your Holy Spirit.

I need you because I cannot do this on my own,

and we cannot.

So God gives us the ability to be obedient.

And when you look back at verse 9 in our focus passage,

this is really important because in the Old Covenant,

the people of Israel knew that they should make the covenant.

They wanted to, they agreed to the covenant,

but they could not keep the covenant

because they did not have the power of Christ

and the Holy Spirit in their hearts to do that.

But under the new covenant,

God offers us something that the people of Israel didn't have.

Yes, they got to see the parting of the Red Sea

and the ten plagues,

and they got to eat menna from heaven,

and they got to cross the Jordan River,

and they got to do all the fun stuff,

but they did not have the Spirit of God

living inside of them, which is so much better

than seeing the miracles that happened in the Old Testament.

I hear so many people say,

man, I would love to be able to see all that stuff.

I'd love to see the parting of the lot.

Yeah, it would be cool,

but the Holy Spirit is so much better,

and we don't take advantage of that.

We don't consider that in our lives.

And so when we look at point number two,

this idea that God gives us obedience,

it does not mean that God is going to make you perfect

in this life.

It doesn't mean that you're not going to be tempted.

It doesn't mean that you're not going to fall

into temptation or just sin.

You're not going to say everything exactly the right way.

You're not going to do everything exactly the right way.

But the Spirit of God living in your life,

and God said,

I will put my laws in their minds,

and I will write them on their hearts.

I don't know about you guys, but before I got saved,

I remember feeling guilty about stuff.

Like, I would do stuff,

and I remember feeling guilty about it.

But it was like, it was like, yeah.

Because when you're not saved, like, you don't care.

It's like, you know, it's like,

oh, no, I shouldn't have done that, but who cares?

Like, no big deal.

Other people do it, whatever.

And then I can remember after I got saved,

and I would do something,

and the guilt was just unbelievably,

infinitely more heavy on my heart and life,

and I would just lay there and agonize over things

that I would think or do or say.

And the weight of that in your life,

to know that God literally,

when He comes in your life,

and He gives you a new heart,

and He gives you His Spirit,

He will write His laws in your heart and on your mind.

And it's not just going to be like this little prick

of your conscience.

I shouldn't have done that.

Okay, whatever.

We'll wipe that one clean and go do something else tomorrow.

Try to do better tomorrow.

No, it is one of those things where He writes it

on your heart and mind,

and then whenever you fail and you sin,

it weighs on you.

It is a different weight because you know

that you have offended God.

You have gone against His will.

You have done something that is not pleasing to Him,

and it needs to be dealt with.

God wants to write His laws in our minds

and in our heart.

He wants to fill us with His Spirit

because He wants to give us the ability

to be obedient to Him.

And I'm telling you this morning,

if you're just trying to be obedient

underneath your own strength,

and you're just like,

yeah, I can be obedient.

I can do this.

You cannot.

You will not.

You will fail.

We will fail every single time.

But through the Holy Spirit

and through that new heart,

God gives us the ability to be obedient

in ways that we never could before.

And whenever we experience that,

it's not a burden.

Like a lot of people look at Christianity like,

well, it's just this burden.

I mean, they just want you to follow all these rules

and do all this stuff like, no, it's not,

because you can't follow the rules and get saved.

God has to do this crazy work in your heart

to put His law in your heart and on your mind

for you to be led and to be empowered

to be obedient to Him

because you can't do it on your own.

It has to be something that God gives you.

And so in the midst of giving you this new heart

with a purpose, He gives us a promise.

He gives us the ability to be obedient.

And through obedience,

He gives us the ability to have fellowship.

Point number three, God gives us fellowship.

One of the greatest parts of that focus passage is,

is I will be their God and they will be my people.

God wants to lay claim to you.

God doesn't want to be ashamed of you.

God does not want to reject you.

He doesn't want to turn away from you.

God wants to be your God. He wants you to be His people.

And He gives us fellowship.

Now, a few weeks ago, we were talking about

fellowshiping with other believers.

But it's so important that we make sure

that we're fellowshiping with God.

You know, you talk about what it is

that you're supposed to do as a believer,

and we talk about having purpose.

There is a massive hole in every single one of our lives

that cannot be filled.

And you can fill it with as much drugs and alcohol

and sex and money and whatever else you can think of.

Success, career, relationships, children,

does not matter, a hole will never be filled.

God has put a hole in our lives, in our hearts,

that is there.

And the only thing that can fill that thing is Himself.

God wants us to have fellowship with Him.

And again, it's not this burden.

It's not like God wants to impose Himself on us.

God didn't make us climb this great mountain

or accomplish all these feats.

He offered the covenant to us first.

He came down. He paid the price for it

so that we could receive it for free.

He calls us to obedience. He doesn't expect you to be obedient.

He gives you the ability to be obedient.

And He gives you the ability to have fellowship with Himself.

And when you look at the New Testament,

and most of you probably know this,

but originally the New Testament was written in Greek.

And the word that fellowship was derived from

is a Greek word called koinonia.

And when you start translating a word from one language to another,

it's pretty difficult to kind of get that exact word

in another language that fits its meaning.

So we do the best we can and we think about fellowship

and we think about, oh, we're just going to hang out

and all this stuff.

But koinonia, probably a deeper, more accurate meaning

would be to share something in common,

to have communion with, which is like sharing ideas

and fellowship.

And then another way of describing it is a partnership.

And I want you to consider today because as a Christian,

you might be struggling with this.

If you're not a Christian yet,

you might be struggling with this idea of God

and like how you're going to approach Him

because God does not come to us wanting us to be these little minions

that just, listen, I'm going to let you tag along with me

and you sit here beside me.

Don't speak, don't do nothing.

Don't make us look stupid.

Keep your mouth shut.

Do what I tell you to do.

That's not God.

What's amazing is that God does speak to us

and His voice is not nearly as forceful

as what we think it is, is it?

How many of you find yourself,

God, speak to me?

Anybody ever want that?

It's like God just show me plainly.

And a lot of times it seems like God whispers

and He shows us in these really small, intimate ways

that we have to really have our eyes open and looking for it

and really be in tune and ready to hear from God

in order to be able to know when God is actually speaking to us.

God doesn't force Himself.

He doesn't sit you down.

You're going to listen to me when I'm talking to you.

He doesn't do that.

We're the ones who say, God, do this, do this, do this.

We're talking to Him constantly.

We hardly ever let Him get a breath in

because we're telling Him all the things we want.

That's not what God does.

God came down through Jesus Christ.

He paid the price.

He did everything.

He set it all up for us to be able to walk into this covenant

free of charge and He doesn't call us to sit there,

stay quiet, don't do anything until I tell you,

He invites us into this communion and partnership with Himself.

Now, let's make sure we understand this thing, okay?

He's definitely the majority stockholder, all right?

It's not like this 50-50 thing,

like you get some say-so in what's going on.

We're like, you know, half a percent,

maybe like one or two percent in this.

But we have partnership.

We have skin in the game.

He invites us into this partnership with Himself.

He gives us everything we need.

He gives us the promise.

He gives us obedience.

And He gives us fellowship to come in

and to partner with Him.

And He gives us His heart.

He gives us His spirit.

And He calls us and say,

look, this is what I want.

I want all people to be saved to know me,

to walk in fellowship with me in this world

and to spend eternity with me in the next world.

Jesus came to build the kingdom of God

and everything that He's ever invited

every single Christian to do is come with me

and build the kingdom.

One of the wonderful things about Jesus

that you see in the New Testament in the Gospels

is that He never hogs all of this amazing stuff to Himself.

He's not the only one who's healing people

and feeding people and doing all these miraculous things.

He invites His disciples to do it with Him.

He sends them out to do the same things.

He says, when the Holy Spirit comes on you,

you will be empowered and you will do even greater things

than I have done.

He wants to share in His kingdom and His purpose

and His plans with you and with I.

He wants to give us the opportunity to walk in fellowship with Him,

to have that like-mindedness.

One of my favorite things about being married

is that Hannah and I, we purposefully try to do things together.

It's like we kind of abandoned personal hobbies

and things that we do on our own.

Everything that we do, we try to do it together,

whether it's just fun or kids or business or anything that we do.

We try to do it together and agree on.

That's one of the most rewarding things that we get to do is do it together.

That's what God wants to do with every single one of us.

He wants you to come along with Him

and allow Him to strengthen you and empower you and raise you up

and help build His kingdom

and to do all the things that Jesus Himself came to do.

He's not hogging it for Himself.

He wants you to share in that.

He wants you to share in the victories.

He wants you to share in the struggles.

He wants you to share in it all so that whenever you get to eternity,

you can truly be His and belong to Him like He wants you to.

Point number four.

In this partnership, it gives us purpose.

Point four, God gives us purpose.

And this is the most important thing of all.

For you to walk through this, if it's one thing to say,

yeah, I'm a Christian.

I got saved when I was seven years old at Bible school.

I've been a Christian.

I actually heard someone say this this past week.

Super nice guy, cool, cussed like a sailor.

Talked about all kinds of stuff.

And then it just so happened.

One other guy sitting around kind of courting him on it

and actually asked him about his faith.

And y'all know that I kind of fly under the radar.

I never tell anybody I'm a pastor.

I'm just sitting there.

I'm just like, yeah, I'm listening.

And dude's been cussing like crazy.

Yeah, I'm saved.

I got saved when I was a kid,

but I don't talk about that.

It's between me and the Lord.

We don't have to talk about stuff like that.

And I'm sitting there.

I'm just like, I don't agree with anything you're saying.

Because I'm not saying you're not saved,

but I just don't agree with anything you're saying.

That's something you got to answer to the Lord over.

But from my perspective, it's so much more.

So much more than that.

God wants to give you a purpose.

He doesn't just call you out of your sin.

He doesn't just catch you at a vulnerable moment

whenever you're feeling bad about something

to try to guilt you into professing something about Him.

He's calling you into a deep and meaningful relationship with Him

and giving you a purpose in your life

that is far beyond anything else you could ever experience in this world.

And I was thinking about this this past week.

I started thinking about like trying to think about some people

who just did some incredible amazing stuff in this world.

And I thought about electricity and how important electricity is.

And thinking about Thomas Edison,

who kind of took electricity and developed it in a way that we could use it.

And you know, you think about a hundred and something years ago,

the entire world lived without electricity

and no one knew any different and they didn't care about it.

And today, there's estimates that if we lost the electrical grid

that 90% of Americans would die within six months.

So like in about a hundred years time,

we went from not needing electricity to being at the point

where we couldn't survive without it.

That's scary.

There's nothing that men or women can do or make.

There's no accomplishment that you can have in this life

that is ever going to be significant to the point where it's only good.

It will always call something.

And so electricity comes around and you think about a television.

And we have a television.

We have more than one.

And like everybody in here probably has a television.

I'm not saying it's sinful.

Don't feel like I'm trying to be a holy roller on you.

But I think we could probably all agree

our lives would be much better if there was no TV.

I'm not saying it's simple.

I'm just saying it's like life would probably be better without it.

But it's a huge part of our life.

It's made somebody a ton of money.

A lot of people a lot of money.

Think about Steve Jobs.

I mean, one of the most innovative people in our culture and our time.

And as much as he's praised, as much as everybody's like,

man, he was a genius.

He did all this cool stuff.

We walk out in public and we go sit down in a restaurant and I'm talking.

I look around and every single person's like this.

And I think, man, our world would probably be a lot better off

if we had not had the smartphone.

There's a difference between the telephone and smartphone.

It's obvious.

Not saying it's sinful, just saying like it came with a cost

and we're paying the price for it.

You can go on, talk about computers, modern health care.

I have to have all these medical conversations with Hannah all the time

and talk about the moral issues,

the moral decisions that have to be made now due to health care.

As wonderful as modern health care is,

it's caused all kinds of problems and issues.

There's nothing that we can do or accomplish

that's not going to cause us something,

that's not going to have negative ramifications.

But everything that Jesus calls us to do,

if you take a step back and you start looking,

you begin to realize like, man, it's just right.

Everything about it's right.

It's such a wonderful thing.

And yes, I know there are people who have taken the name of Christ

and have done things that were immoral,

but those are people, not God.

There have been people who have abused and misused the church

and all of these different things,

but when you look at what Christianity has brought to the world,

Christianity has made the world a significantly better place

all over the globe.

From global literacy to schools being formed by missionaries,

the preservation and spreading of knowledge through written text,

the printing press, the books, Christianity had a huge impact in that.

Hospitals and clinics around the world,

you know, one of the fascinating things about going to Haiti

at the Star Wars country,

one of the most important things that they had was the hospital

on Lagunov that people came to.

Brandy had her toe operated on there.

That was set up by Christianity.

That was set up by people who followed Christ

and done what Christ was calling them to do.

Medical innovations, charitable works, food banks,

homeless shelters, addiction facilities,

even art, music, philosophy,

written languages for so many cultures around the world,

we're actually supporting a missionary family, the Smootz family,

who are currently with a group of people right now

developing a written language for them

because they've never had one before.

They're developing a written language so that they can translate the Bible

and how many books do they have already?

Most of the New Testament already translated into that language

that they are teaching these people.

They've never had it before.

The ethical framework of the modern world,

human rights, is a Christian movement.

The abolition of slavery, women's rights movement,

improving prison conditions,

education and care of the mentally ill,

the stopping of child sacrifices in Rome

and the gladiatorial games in Rome

was stopped because of Christianity.

Christianity, you could go through history

and have a never-ending list of the positive things

that Christianity has brought into this world.

Do not think that following Christ and giving your life to Him

is handicapping you or bringing you into some kind of bondage.

In fact, it's freeing.

It is freeing us from the bondage and the captivity of this world.

It is releasing you from all the garbage in this life

that makes you feel like you have to cling to it.

All the addictions that we have in this life,

all these things that we cling to and we think are valuable,

it frees us from all that.

And that's exactly why you read about these people in Scripture

who are saying,

I know what it's like to be rich.

I know what it's like to be poor.

I know what it's like to have plenty.

I know what it's like to be hungry.

And through everything, I can be joyful in Christ

because it does not matter what the situations of this world are.

If you have fellowship with God,

if He's given you a new heart,

if His Spirit is living within you

and you are walking with Him,

the world literally does not matter.

You can be happy and joyful and whole,

and most importantly, you can have a purpose

to not just build something in this life

that you're going to have to give away anyway,

but to build something for the life to come

that you can cling to for all of eternity,

to know that when you step into eternity,

you may not have helped build the stones

or the mansions in heaven,

but you helped bring people along with you.

And I promise you, when you get to heaven one day

and you stand before the Lord,

He's not going to care that you didn't help build the mansions

or you didn't lay the streets of gold.

The important thing is the people who are there,

who have worship and fellowship with God,

and you have the opportunity to have the purpose

of bringing those people along with you

to be witnesses and ministers of the gospel.

Let's pray.

Father, thank You for another opportunity

to read Your Word and to know You more.

Father, I pray this morning

that You would speak powerfully to our hearts.

Remind us of who You are,

remind us of the calling on Your life,

and help us, Lord, to be willing to listen

and submit in any way.

Lord, help us not to clean the things of this world,

but to look forward to the one to come.

God, we love You and we thank You,

and we ask it all in Jesus' name.

Amen.