Life On Purpose | Stuck On Purpose

Don't let 9 o'clock show you up now.

We're so glad you're here.

Welcome to church.

We've been in a series just started called Life on Purpose.

And I just want to take just a moment to encourage you on your way out today to pick up one of these devotional guides.

It's a life on purpose study guide.

We purchased from another church.

They created these.

And we would love to have you grab one of these because they go along with our series.

So what we talk about on Sunday, so long as I stay with my notes, will actually be in the context of this book right here.

You'll get to study the scriptures that go along with it throughout the week.

It's a great way to just grow stronger in your faith.

Who's looking to get stronger?

Somebody.

This is one of the ways you can do that.

So it's$14 out in the lobby.

We're just passing on the cost of what we purchased it for.

And we're having a BOGO sale.

Ladies, you know what that is?

It's called buy one, give one.

Oh, just oh, I missed it.

And so our heart is this: if if money is an issue, don't let money be an issue.

You just steal it right off that table on your way out.

They look at you like you just stole it.

You said what?

The pastor said I could steal it.

Our heart is this.

We don't want any of these left over when we're done because that means uh there's there's still food left on the table.

And uh our heart is that you would grow stronger in this season.

So just grab one.

We'd love to have you uh be a part of this as we go throughout the series.

Also, uh, if you haven't joined a group and you're still interested in a group, uh you can do so online.

You can I'm sure you could tap the seat in front of you and uh find a group on our app or our website.

Uh those will start this week and they're going for seven weeks.

And listen, I know sometimes it's hard to jump into something new, and so maybe you're here today and you're saying, I really wanted to be a part of a group.

I just, even when I looked through, I didn't know which one to be a part of.

Our team would love to help you find a group uh that is right for you.

And so after the service, find one of our pastors or one of the people down front, and we'll help connect you with a group uh that would be good for you in this life season of yours.

We'd love to have you be a part of that.

I've titled today's message Stuck on Purpose.

Tell your neighbor, don't get stuck.

Stuck on Purpose.

My five-year-old Cohen uh this week was determined.

I don't mean like a five-year-old, like, Dad, I want to do this.

I mean every second of every day.

Dad, teach me how to ride my bike without my training wheels.

Over and over and over.

And he he wouldn't relent and he wouldn't give up.

I brought him up to the church, put him out in the parking lot.

Mom says, You put him in the grass.

I was like, no, um, forgot that part, you know.

And uh turned him loose on his bike, and and he just would not quit trying.

He's the kind of kid, he just wants you to take him off.

He doesn't want to learn how to do it, and then you take him off.

He's like, no, just start that way.

And uh, it wasn't going for him very well, and and he was getting kind of frustrated.

I could really sense in his heart that he was pretty determined.

And I said, son, why do you want to do this so bad?

And he said, Dad, because when I know how to do this, it means you're gonna buy me a dirt bike.

And I said, What?

I said, Who told you that?

He said, You did.

I said, What?

He said, the other day I asked you if I learned how to ride my bike, is that what it takes to learn how to ride a dirt bike?

And you said, yes.

I said, Well, that didn't mean I said I'm buying you one.

I said that's what it takes.

He said, Well, this bike would be way better with a throttle.

I was like, all right.

How many of you know when you have an aim, something you're going at, it changes the drive that you have to get there?

That when your heart is all in, when you have purpose and direction about what might be ahead, it changes the way you navigate whatever it is that you're going through.

I'm telling you, that five-year-old boy knows how to cry, but if he's in work in progress to get to that dirt bike, he's gonna shed those tears, wipe those tears off a lot faster.

Why?

Because he is determined to get where he's going.

As we are in this series on purpose, it would be our heart for you as a church, our prayer for you as a church, that you would live with that kind of determination about the purpose God has put on your life.

If you're here today, here's what we believe: God has a purpose on your life.

God wants to do great things in your life, in you, and through you.

But oftentimes, if you're anything like me, you say that's great for a five-year-old, but what happens when you grow up?

Well, what happens when you grow up is maybe you still have that same vision or that same ambition or that same drive to get to that place.

You just feel stuck along the way.

One of the things I hear more often than not when it comes to talking about purpose is people often say, I want to do what God wants me to do.

I want to go to those places.

And most people in the room would say, When I started, I started out strong, but somewhere along the way, I started asking a lot of questions.

How did I get here?

Am I supposed to be here?

Do you want me over there?

Am I supposed to be doing this?

And oftentimes what we can find is the more stuck we get, often, the more we feel like the purpose begins to diminish.

That the light at the end of the tunnel begins to not shine as bright.

When I was a, my son comes by it honestly.

I grew up uh going to the farm almost every other weekend, my grandparents' farm, and and uh they had a jeep.

How many of y'all like driving somebody else's jeep, somebody?

And um, and and you know, jeeps are made to do one thing that's be in the mud.

So when I drove by, I was a teenager, when I drove by and saw a pond that had the dam had broken and the pond had drained, I thought that is just the purpose and plan for my life right there.

And I found myself in the middle of that pond with that jeep, and and I remember I went around the edges a few times just to make sure it wouldn't sink too bad.

And sure enough, as I took up across the middle, Texas boys, what happened?

Sunk right in the middle.

I I remember getting out and inspecting what I had done.

I was proud of myself, you know, somebody.

And uh, but then I had this realization I gotta get this thing out.

I remember I got out and I looked, and and it was about two-thirds of the way up the tires, and and I got back in and I thought to myself, this thought I remember it.

I am a man.

That was my thought.

I'm just telling you my thoughts today.

Like, that was my thought.

That's code, ladies, for I can fix this.

And so I hopped back in the Jeep and I tried some more, and I tried.

How many of you know the longer I tried, the more stuck it got?

I remember sitting in that Jeep, and and I remember I hopped out and the mud came up to about my my kneecaps right here, and I remember thinking with every step, what I do right now in the middle of being stuck really matters.

I remember in that moment I sat there for a while and thought, what in the world am I gonna do about this?

And and I knew I had to tell the owner of the Jeep, but I didn't want to.

Anybody ever been there?

You knew you're stuck, you knew you got yourself into the mess, but you didn't want anybody to know all around you.

And sometimes the thought of telling other people causes us to get more stuck.

Because if I have to let other people in on my stuff, if I have to air my laundry, if I have to bring other people into this mess, then I would rather just sit here and be stuck.

And so I remember gaining up the courage to go and tell my grandfather, and I remember telling him, uh, I got your Jeep stuck.

You know?

I was expecting him to be upset, I was expecting him to have consequences, I was upset, expecting him to tell my parents, I was expecting him to not be happy with me, but I'll never forget his response when he began to laugh.

He said, That's not the first time, son.

And he said, In fact, I have a tractor big enough to pull it out.

And he drove out there with his tractor, and the thing that I worked on my own to fix and could not fix, he fixed just like that.

As we talk about purpose, here's my heart for you.

My heart is that in the midst of you being stuck, you would look to the one place you could find the answer.

That in the in the midst of your life, as you've gone about your life, and and maybe today you feel like your purpose tank is high, but maybe today you're in the room and you're like, my purpose tank is low.

My heart and burden for you is this that regardless of whatever season you're in, you would look to the one who can pull you out of the mess.

That you would look to the one who could give you direction and give you a strength to get places you could never get on your own.

You know, the hardest part about purpose oftentimes is we think, well, I got myself into this, I can fix this.

Oftentimes, one of the challenges of purpose is we think maybe if we just do our best, that maybe we'll make it there somehow, somehow.

But what I'm here to show you today through Scripture, and I'm gonna read out of Colossians chapter two.

If you're of your Bibles, I encourage you to turn there today, Colossians chapter two, and I want to reveal to you what Scripture says.

Because our heart in this series, as we study the book of Colossians, our heart is to get to the root of what it is that God would say to us as a church.

And as I read Colossians chapter 2, I read it numerous times this week.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

Here's what I know.

It is one of the most theologically dense passages of Scripture.

I mean, you can read it, and every time you read it, you learn something about Jesus that you didn't know before.

It doesn't matter how long you've been in church, what seminary you've been to, how long you studied, you're a pastor or not, every time you read it, I promise you, God has a way of revealing something fresh and new through his word.

But I want you to know that at its simple core, I believe as I read Colossians 2, the Lord said this: this is how people get unstuck.

That if you grab onto these scriptures right here, it is the very power of God to help you unstick yourself from some very messy situations.

As you learn to ask God the deep questions of life.

God, what is it I'm supposed to do?

Where do you want me to go?

What house do you want me to buy?

How do you want me to raise my kids?

What job do you want me to have?

As you begin to ask these deep questions, I believe through the lens of Colossians chapter 2, you'll start to find some answers.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

If you're ready, say I'm ready.

Colossians chapter 2, verse 6 says this.

Colossians 2:6

It says, So then, just as you received Christ, just as you received him, continue to live your lives in Jesus.

Rooted, built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

See to it, he says, watch yourself, be careful that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world, rather than Christ himself.

What is he saying?

He says, watch out for the pond with mud.

Watch out for the places in life where deception and philosophy, things that can get you stuck from doing the very thing that God put you here to do.

Verse 9, for in Christ Jesus all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form.

And in Christ, you have been brought to fullness.

He is the head over every power and authority.

All the fullness you will ever need in this life is in Christ, it says.

Verse 13.

And when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.

He forgave us of all of our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

I love that line.

He's taken it away.

What do you mean, taken it away?

It means he put it on the cross.

And when he put it on the cross, here's what he did: he gave you the power to have your purpose restored.

That the thing that you were created for and designed for could come alive in you.

The things that were dead become alive.

The one thing that held you at a distance from God, your sin, could be redeemed and restored so that you could be close to him again.

So this morning, here's what I want to talk about as you as you ask these deep questions in life about what your purpose is, and you ever get to a moment where you feel stuck, I want you to see it through the lens of these three things from Scripture today.

Number one, when you feel like you're stuck, we often feel like we're stuck because we simply can't see it.

Often we feel like we're stuck because we simply can't see the purpose out in front of us.

By purpose today, I want to draw in a little bit wider net here and just paint the picture of oftentimes we can't see God's greater design for our life.

What's the bigger picture?

If you've ever assembled some IKEA furniture, you know I need a bigger picture than what I'm seeing in front of me.

I'm gonna need some hope to get through because oftentimes, in the midst of discovering our purpose, it gets clouded with some uncertainty and some big questions.

It reminds me of the old viral dress.

You remember that dress that went viral?

Was it gold and white or blue and black?

Gold and white, anybody?

You're going to heaven.

Bless God.

You you can see the vision on high.

Right?

You this this was going around uh several years ago for a long time, and people were having an argument.

Everybody who looked at it saw something different.

And sometimes what I find myself doing is I could look at a picture like that and I see it one way at first, and then I see it a different way next.

And I don't know about you, but that just confuses me.

Sometimes what I'll do in my life too is sometimes I'll feel like the purpose is right in front of me, and then I'll start to think about it for a while.

And the more I think about it, sometimes the more confused I get.

You know, sometimes I'd like to say, hey, you know, when I'm five, I start out with some ambition, but the longer I go, sometimes some uncertainty is allowed to take root in my heart and in my spirit, and all of a sudden I find myself scratching my head more than I'm walking forward.

And as we think about that this morning, I want you to know because sometimes the feeling is this when you look at a picture like that, your feeling is it's a mystery.

Listen, I don't know, maybe they came out with some scientific reason why you see it one color and another person sees it another.

The truth is, if scientists came out with a reason behind it, I'm probably still not smart enough to understand it.

Here's what I know.

Here's what I know that oftentimes it just feels like a mystery to me.

And sometimes in our life, our purpose can feel like a mystery.

Have you ever been there before?

Where you're like, I I thought I knew, but maybe I don't.

And the more it feels like a mystery, the more uncertain we might get, or the more unsure we might get.

And so our prayers might turn into something like this.

In your prayer closet, you may be praying, Lord, just show me a piece.

Like, just show me one little, if you'll show me one little glimpse, I'll go a long way for you, God.

And our prayers can turn into that.

Why?

Because we have this idea built up in our mind that our purpose is something that God has put in inside of a box and closed the lid and put it in the closet and said, Good luck, I hope you make it.

I'm here today to tell you that's not the kind of God we serve.

In fact, the purpose for your life is not a mystery at all.

In fact, the purpose for your life has already been revealed.

You're not looking for something or someone to fulfill your purpose.

You're not looking for a promotion or a job or a better bank account.

While those things may be nice, I'm here to tell you I've met countless people who've made all the money in the world and still feel as empty on the inside as the day they started.

I've met people who got the job they were looking for their whole life and they work towards, and they get to the top of the ladder and they say, Is this really all there is?

Well, what I'm telling you today is your purpose is not hidden in a box.

The mystery has already been revealed.

It is right before our very eyes.

But how many of y'all have ever done anything like me?

You're in a hurry to get out of the house.

And you know 1488 is full up of traffic, and you're thinking, there is no way I'm ever gonna make it.

So you frantically go looking for your keys all around the house, and just when you need them, you can't find them.

So the first place I know to go is I go to my daughter's room and I unload her 13,000 purses just to see what she's filled them up with.

Make sure my keys aren't in there, and then I'll go to the next room and I'll go to the counter where I always put them and they're not there, and I'll go to the next counter only to find out the keys had been where?

Right with me the whole time.

I know don't y'all make fun of me, okay?

Listen.

I know y'all do stuff like this all the time.

Yeah, I'll be right there.

As soon as I can find my phone, I will, I'll promise I will be there.

You're talking to me.

Oh, yeah.

See, sometimes that's our purpose right there.

That we actually can make it more complicated or harder than the Lord ever intended for it to be when he says this right here: the mystery of God for your life has already been revealed.

Listen to what Colossians says in Colossians chapter 1, verse 27.

Colossians 1:27

This mystery, which is what?

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

The purpose in your life, the hope of glory for you.

The mystery has been revealed, and that revelation is this Jesus in you is all you'll ever need.

It's not Jesus in the next thing, it's not Jesus in your next assignment, it's not Jesus in the next thing you buy.

He says, Christ in you is all you're ever going to need to have your tank full on the inside.

To be satisfied, to be walking in purpose.

And I don't just want to take one verse, I'm gonna give you a few.

Excuse me, Colossians chapter 2, verse 2.

Colossians 2:2

God's mystery, which is Christ.

Listen, sometimes doesn't it feel like you're mining for treasure?

Going around and seeking, maybe I can find it here, maybe it will look here, or maybe I tried that, maybe I will try this, and then I will know what it is I'm supposed to do.

But God has already said the mystery is Christ.

In verse 26 of chapter 1, the mystery was hidden for ages and generations.

In other words, before Jesus, everybody's wondering what God's big plan is and God's big purpose, but now it has been what?

Revealed to his saints.

Revealed to his saints.

Raise your hand and say, I'm a saint.

Don't be nudging your spouse.

Yes, they are a saint.

I know you may not always feel like a saint.

I know you may not always do things like a saint, but here's what I want you to know.

A saint is not just some person who did good things like Mother Teresa and has gone on to be with the Lord.

A saint in the Bible is a person who believes in Jesus Christ.

It's the church of Jesus Christ.

And here's what this scripture is saying: that the mystery of God has been revealed to you.

That when you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, it means you know the mystery of heaven.

It has been revealed to you.

But God's purpose in your life, it's not a mystery, it's not hidden, it's right before you.

But sometimes we just don't know how to read it.

I've been working with my kids on reading and quite quickly realized my daughter's smarter than I am.

Pronouncing words I couldn't pronounce, learning things in the English language I don't even know would have been helpful when I went to seminary and learned Greek, uh, Dr.

John.

I just, it's like that would have been really helpful for me to know when I was six.

And as I'm learning to read, I realize something.

You have to learn how it was written.

And when you learn how it was written, you'll know how to live it.

When I think about that, uh, it reminds me of I have a 1996 Polaris jet ski.

30-year-old jet ski.

It is a gym.

It is magenta, teal, and purple.

I mean, it is it is a beauty.

I received it for free from a family member who said, we're gonna give it away to somebody who won't sell it.

And I said, You bet.

I'll hold on to that thing till the day it sinks, you know?

He had kept it in a barn for 25 years and barely wrote it.

There's like 25, 30 hours on the thing when he gave it to me about five years ago.

And I'll never forget because he was a mechanic.

We got any mechanics in the room?

I definitely am not.

He fixed it up.

He didn't even write it, he just fixed it because he wanted to fix it.

You need men like that in the room?

You just I'm just gonna fix this.

Wait, is it broken?

Nope, I'm just gonna fix it anyway.

And he worked on it, he worked on it, and so I got it, and after about a year, it started not running right, and and we didn't have a lot of money.

I didn't want to spend a lot of money on exploratory surgery.

You know what I'm saying?

Like just send it off and figure it out.

So one night I got this bright idea, and I was in my garage.

It was about 11 o'clock.

That was should have been my first sign, this is not a good idea.

And I just began to take that thing apart right there in the garage.

Say, well, somebody can fix it, maybe it'll be me.

And I began to pull the pieces apart, and a couple hours in I start realizing I got a lot more bolts than I thought.

I got a lot more parts and pieces coming out.

I I knew I was missing some part that had broken, and so I started ordering all kinds of parts on eBay.

Listen, in my garage, if you need some 1996 parts, I got them all today.

Why?

Because I thought I was gonna put the thing back together, but how many of you know I had no idea how to do it?

And I started realizing real quickly, so I called my friend who fixes stuff like that, and I said, Hey, I took this thing apart because I just know you can put it back together.

He came over for a day and worked on it, and who did he get it together?

No, he did not.

So now I'm thinking, what am I going to do?

So I called all around, but nobody wants to touch in 1996.

Why?

Because they know it's gonna break and they know they can't put all the pieces, and I finally caught a guy on the phone, and here's what he said.

He said, Oh, I used to have one of those things, they're a beauty.

I said, You're my guy right there.

And he took it, and what did he do?

He put it back together.

He had that thing running faster than it was before.

Why?

Listen, because he knew the original design, because he had seen it before, because he had a picture of what it was that he was doing.

When it comes to our purpose, oftentimes our struggle is we feel like we can't see it.

And that's because we don't have God's download of his original design.

So, what I want to do today is give you a Bible lesson 101 on the story of Genesis to Revelation.

So I hope you don't have plans at Papacitos today because you ain't going.

I'm gonna go from Genesis 1 to Revelation right now in just a nutshell.

And so I painted some beautiful pictures right here that I want to show you.

I painted this for you right here with AI.

Just all my Artistic ability packed up right in here.

Because here's what I want you to see.

I want you to see God's purpose in your design.

I want you to know how God created you because when you know how it is that He created you, it will help you live in your purpose on a greater level.

And in Genesis chapter 1, we read the story of God, and what it says is that the Spirit of God hovered above the waters.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

I just want you to think about that for just a moment.

That one of the very first things that God says in Scripture is, I was already there.

That God was already a part of what was happening.

He forms Adam and Eve.

And what does he do?

He breathes life into Adam.

He takes the dust, he breathes life into Adam.

In other words, without God, there was no Adam.

In other words, we're already seeing God begin to map this.

And God gives Adam a job.

He says, Go and cultivate the earth, go and name the animals.

He gives them work to do.

Some of y'all I know you're thinking, my job, it doesn't have any purpose.

I beg to differ.

There's a purpose under everything.

And Adam is right here in the garden.

Here's what he's learning from God on day one that we can learn about our design, and that is this.

We were created to live in God's presence.

How do you discover your presence?

You will not understand the fullness of your purpose until you understand what it's like to live in his presence.

Because it's in his presence that the garden looks like this.

It's in his presence that things are made right.

It's in his presence that you have what you need.

It's in his presence that you have direction about what it is that you are to do.

So in the garden, we can walk away with this idea and understanding today that God's design for your life from the very beginning of time has to be it been to be with you.

That you would be with him.

That in his presence your world begins to make more sense.

The pieces get put back together.

But the challenge was this: we know that in the garden they were tempted to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

There's two trees.

One was the tree of life.

The idea behind the tree of life is the idea that you eat of it and you will live forever with God right there in the garden.

But God told them not to eat of the other tree.

Most people don't realize there was another tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Oftentimes we think of the world fallen because of bad things, but how many of you know just because we're smart and think we have it all figured out doesn't mean we do.

And he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, good or evil, either one, both of them were misleading.

Misleading to Adam's real purpose that you need God.

The enemy came to Adam, and here's how he tempted him.

He said, If you eat of this tree, you will be like God.

In other words, you're not going to need God.

You'll be good all by yourself.

And the challenge with this idea is it's already leading man away from the very purpose and intention for which he was created to be with God and give glory to God.

So Adam, just like us, had a moment where things begin to come off the rails, and in this moment, Adam's first response is this he hides.

What does he do?

He hides from the presence of God.

And in this moment, I think what you begin to see is the first time we see the separation of man and his purpose.

For the first time, we begin to see man tries to cover up his mistakes.

He tries to get himself unstuck.

Adam begins to think, I can fix this.

So what does he do?

He covers himself up.

In the end, what happens is God kills the first animal and covers Adam up.

Why?

Because God is the only one who can make a covering for our sin and our mistake, and the only one who can help us get unstuck from the mud.

And in this moment, you're seeing a story begin to unfold.

And so God, in his graciousness, kicks Adam and Eve out of the garden.

So we got to the second picture here, and it's the idea of a shrub.

And you think, well, that's kind of mean of God to kick them out of the garden.

It's not mean at all.

It's one of the most loving, gracious things God could have done by getting him out of the garden.

Why?

Because the logical side of this would be this that if Adam continued to eat of the tree of life, he would live in that condition in sin, separate from the presence of God for all of eternity.

And God said, I love you too much to let your purpose and your my plans for your life to go down the drain.

And so what is we read in Jeremiah chapter 17, here's what it contrasts.

Jeremiah 17 · chapter mention

He says, Cursed is the man.

That's a strong word, but but but the way I would say it today is this hard is the path.

Hard is the path that you choose where you trust in your own strength.

You see, God didn't design you, he didn't design me for us to figure this out on our own.

He didn't design you, and he didn't design me to fix ourselves.

He didn't design us to get life from within ourselves.

Our grand design that we have to see is that we are always made to live right here.

Jeremiah 17 says this, though, about the bush.

I don't know if you want to be a tree or a bush, but here's the idea right here today.

And the idea is this it says that it's a dry, parched place.

The idea of this is that there is no life in here.

It's uninhabitable, it's no place to live.

And so when Jesus stepped on the scene, our third tree right here is the sign of a cross.

This is I'm moving pretty fast, y'all.

Just saying.

You with me?

Are you thinking about those chips still?

I know, I know.

And in this third one, here's what we pick up on that Jesus entered the world as another tree is is formed in the shape of a cross.

Jesus, it says, was nailed to that cross.

Listen to this in Colossians 1, verse 14.

Colossians 1:14

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Matthew chapter 7, verse 13.

Matthew 7:13

Wide is the gate, and broad is the path that leads to destruction, and many will enter through it.

Small is the gate, and narrow is the path that does what?

That leads to life.

And only a few find it.

What is Jesus doing when he steps down on the scene?

He's making a way for a payment of our sin.

He's making a way for what?

For us to go back to the garden and be who God made us to be and do the things that God made us to do.

So that's why Revelation paints this picture.

I know you think of Revelation, you think of all the scary figures you read, but the idea at the end of Revelation is this: it is back to the garden in a greater way.

It is back to God's presence.

And if it's back to God's presence, what does it mean?

You're back to your purpose.

That through the cross, Jesus made a way to every person who would stay in the wilderness and desert and try and figure out their purpose on their own or make it up on their own or try to unstick themselves.

That's why Matthew 7 says, narrow is the gate.

Because the only way to get your vision back for what God created you to be is through the lens of the cross of Jesus Christ.

And when you see what Jesus did, here's what you can now have.

Revelation 22, verse 1.

Revelation 22:1

The angel showed me the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

Also on either side of the river, what was it?

The tree of life.

That your purpose is wrapped up in what Jesus did for you, which is why Paul is writing to the Colossians from jail.

Listen, I don't know about you, but if I was in jail, I'd be questioning my purpose.

But Paul being put in jail only accelerated his purpose even greater.

It only made him shout louder.

He began to write these words to the Colossians, and he's telling them this don't let anyone deceive you.

The path out there is wide.

But when you go through Jesus, it is Christ alone and you that is your hope.

If you're gonna see your purpose again, you gotta start seeing Jesus again.

Your vision gets expounded for your life.

Things begin to put back to rights.

Why?

Because the idea of the end of Revelation is this we get back to the way God started.

And back to the way God started means we get back in his presence.

Your purpose will never be found apart from God's presence in your life.

So I want to paint this in a few ways because sometimes I know that in my life there are all these things that I will chase.

Sometimes I will feel like I need to please God.

That if I do enough things, then maybe I'll get back on the right path.

And if I do enough things and get on the right path, then I will have fixed my mistakes and God will be ready to bless me or show favor on me in my life.

Can I tell you it's not about your performance before the Lord?

It's not about your performance, it's not about your programs, your religious programs.

Well, I go to church at least three times a month.

Maybe God will honor that.

It's not about what you do for God.

It's not about your position in life, what you have attained to.

It's not about your possessions or your next paycheck.

Seeing the purpose in your life starts with seeing God's presence again.

Can you see the vision of what he's doing in you?

Can you see the vision of what it is that he wants to do in you?

Because I know the cares of this world and the stuff that goes on in this world, Paul calls it deceptive philosophies.

You should live your life this way, you should do this, you should try this, you should go down this path.

Oh, you feel that way?

Maybe if you do this, then you'll feel a little bit better.

And Paul is getting to the root of it by saying, if you don't see this, you're not gonna see what you're made to see.

Get back to the heart of God's presence in your life.

What does that look like for you?

Maybe you're here today and you're saying, I need some more purpose, I need some more direction, I need some more clarity, I need some more guidance.

I want to tell you the most powerful thing you could do every day is spend your time in his presence.

Because the more you're in his presence, the more you begin to see the picture that he's been painting for your life from the very beginning of time.

The second thing we have to do is surrender.

Oftentimes we feel stuck in life because we haven't surrendered to God's purpose for our life.

Finding your ultimate purpose starts with surrendering.

It has this effect in you that when you surrender to God's ways, it begins to put things right in your ways.

It begins to make your life and the puzzle pieces of your life begin to be put back together.

I love how he says this in Colossians chapter 2, verse 6.

Colossians 2:6

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him.

What's the implication here?

Well, he's talking to saints, which means he's talking to the church.

This wasn't a cultural phenomenon.

Listen, I know we live in church, and I know to have a good business in Texas, you just have to go to church.

I know it's just what people do, and I know it's keeping up with the Joneses and some of those things, but I just want to tell you the people that are reading this are people who meant the real deal.

They're not doing this because there's the latest craze or the latest fun thing to do.

Or listen, the people who are reading this are the people who said, I've gone all in on my faith with Jesus, which is why he said this, just as you received Jesus.

What is he saying?

He's saying your purpose was reignited in you the day you received him.

Well, how do you receive Jesus?

In order to receive Jesus, you have to surrender your life over for his.

That's why Colossians said it, he nailed it to the cross.

Why?

So that your death can become life, so that your sin and separation from God can be restored and you can be close to God again.

But it starts with a moment of salvation.

And I want to encourage you with this today because I I my heart feels burdened this week.

I want to encourage you with this today.

If you've never had a moment in time, not where you just went to church, a moment in time where you said, Jesus, I'm all in.

Jesus, I'm surrendering.

Jesus, I've tried my ways and I've gotten stuck in the mud too many times.

I'm done trying to get myself out.

That pump that point of surrender is the powerful moment that your purpose comes alive again.

And so I'm here and I'm reminded of this this week.

I am so thankful for a church that has a purpose.

You know, we have a purpose.

Hebrews 11 7 for the saving of households.

We are here so that people can come to know Jesus.

I'm so thankful that we have teenagers surrendering their life to Jesus every single week.

Why?

Because you're never too young to meet Jesus.

That next door, my kids are next door right now, and they're not just here and they're past or dad at home, share the gospel of Jesus.

They have a parent in there, a leader in there who is partnering with me to share Jesus with them.

I'm thankful why?

Because this moment of surrender is the most important thing you will ever do in your whole life.

And we may look for purpose in a job or a house or a bank account, but all of that pales in comparison to making the decision to start with Jesus.

Because your purpose won't start until you do.

I was reminded of that this week.

We had an unfortunate, tragic accident, and one of our young people, his name is Damien, I want to give you a picture of him on the screen today.

We had his funeral this week and we honored and celebrated his life.

And as we are honoring and celebrating his life, it was one of those moments where how many of you know life has a way of going in different paths than you ever expected.

And for this sweet family, they made the decision to start coming to church on August 20th of 2023, the day we opened the church.

And they got involved and they got invested in the life of the church.

And their son Damien made the decision a couple of years ago to surrender his life to Jesus.

Why?

Because you're never too young.

And he made the decision to give his life to Jesus.

And his mom said, Do you want to be baptized?

He said, Yes, I want to be baptized.

She said, Are you sure?

Is this your decision?

He said, Mom, this is my choice.

I'm getting baptized.

How many of y'all are thankful for teenagers who say, I'm I'm going with or without anybody else?

And I share this picture because it's been a powerful reminder to me of what matters most.

As you look at his life, here's what I really believe.

I really believe that his purpose has come alive in a greater level than we have yet to see.

And it wasn't the end for him, it's just the beginning because he made a decision to start and surrender his life to Jesus.

And I just want to encourage you in this room today, if you've never made the decision to say yes to Jesus, you have to start there.

And maybe for some of you've been coming to church for a long time, but you've never made this decision.

Because listen, I get it, it's easy to come in every week and do what everybody else is doing without knowing what everybody else in the room knows.

And here's the reality: the Bible says this that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved.

The purpose you feel stuck in will start to make sense.

You'll start to get clarity.

So would you bow your heads and close your eyes?

I I want to make, I'm not done with this message, it's way too early.

But I just I want a time for you in this moment.

If you've never made the decision to say yes to Jesus, we're not gonna call you out or embarrass you, but would you just slip your hand up?

Because we want to pray for you.

Your purpose comes alive.

Thank you.

I see you right there.

I love your boldness.

Thank you, I see you over there.

Dad's in the room making decisions right now to say yes to Jesus.

Thank you.

I see, I see women all over the place.

Maybe you've been in church for a long time, and you might be embarrassed to say this because you think, well, I've never surrendered my life to Jesus.

Did you know you can do that right here, right now?

It doesn't matter if you've been in church your whole life.

There's no playing with God, there's no performance for God.

It's a moment of surrender.

Your purpose begins.

Let's pray this together as a church.

Father, we come into your house and we say thank you for the people who are making the decision right now to surrender their life over to you.

The greatest decision they will ever make.

And Father, here's what we believe: that right now you are making us new in Christ.

That our hope of glory is Christ alone.

We're done trying ourselves and we put our sin behind us because of what you did to nail it to the cross.

And so, Father, we receive our salvation in you as we surrender our life over to following you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Can we give it up for the people who just made that decision?

Listen.

I still got one whole more point, so don't go anywhere.

But just listen.

At the end of service, we'd love to pray with you and we'd love to talk to you about the best decision you ever made because here's what it does for you.

Your point of surrender starts some of your best days.

And the last one is this for everybody else in the room.

It's the idea of staying with it.

I love what it says right here in Colossians chapter 2, verse 6.

Colossians 2:6

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him.

Maybe you feel stuck in your purpose today because you've stopped staying in the very place that God wants to put you in.

Maybe the reason your purpose is muddy and you feel stuck today, because you haven't kept doing the very thing these people just did, which is surrendering your life over to Him on a daily basis.

God, I'm staying with you.

I love this.

It's the idea, if you'll throw that slide back up here, it's the idea of this.

Oftentimes we think our purpose is an event in life.

It is a moment.

And there's part of it that is that when you receive Christ in you, that was a moment in time.

But God sees your purpose not just as an event, but as a process.

That it's not just a one-time deal, that it's an everyday deal.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I woke up about 15 years into being saved and realized something.

I need to get saved every day.

Not because I'm not gonna not go to heaven because of stuff I I need I need every day to make the choice.

God, I'm going with you today because every temptation in me is to chase my own purpose, but God, I'm going with you.

Every day I gotta make the choice and the decision.

God, I'm sticking with your plan over my plan.

And even in the middle of the storm when it feels like your plan ain't a good one, God, I'm gonna stick with you.

Why?

Because the ultimate goal is being in his presence.

If the ultimate goal is my new house or my new job or my better paycheck, then I can go a lot of places that God's not going.

But at the end of the day, my purpose is to be with him.

So here's why Paul warns them.

He says, continue to live your lives in him.

Listen, he would not have said to say, continue, if he didn't already know that there would be people who don't continue.

That it would be easy to set aside your faith, it would be easy to go in a different direction.

And so here's what he said: see to it that no one takes you captive.

Don't let anybody else stick you in the mud.

Don't let anybody else hold you back.

Through hollow and deceptive philosophy, what does that mean?

It means that just because somebody said it doesn't mean it's true.

Just because you heard it when you were being raised doesn't mean it's reality in the kingdom of God.

What Paul is saying is the same thing that happened to Adam in the garden is there's all these paths and all these ways that are wide.

But don't be deceived.

Because the enemy is a deceiver, and his goal or his job would be to take you out.

But listen to verse 9.

For in Christ, all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form.

In Christ in you, you have been brought to fullness.

He is the head over every power and authority.

What is it saying?

Your purpose, your fullness is Christ in you.

I want to remind some of you who feel weary today, who feel discouraged or distracted from the purpose God has for you in your life.

I want to remind you to stay in his fullness, not yours.

That it's his filling of your life, not yours.

That it's his doing, his breathing, his life in you that makes all the difference in the world.

And maybe today you're here and you say, Listen, I know people just gave their life to the Lord, but I just need a reminder that it is Jesus filling me up today.

And if that's you today, here's what we believe that God can deposit the strength right back in you.

So as we do this last song, I'd ask you to stand.

I want to share this one story with you before we close.

Go ahead and stand, and we're gonna close in worship.

And it's just a reminder to me today to do this very thing.

If my wife looked at me and I looked at her and I said, Thank you for your yes, honey.

She would look back at me and she would say, Which one?

Why?

Because she's had a lot of yeses.

I mean, we had the day that we got married when I outsmarted her, outshot my coverage.

I'm so thankful for the day she said yes.

But do you know what I'm even more thankful for today?

The yes that she's had every day since.

Because anybody who's been married for more than five minutes knows this.

There will be all the opportunity in the world to start saying no.

There'd be all the opportunity in the world to do something different.

But here's what I love.

It was her yes yesterday that matters to me.

It's her yes today that matters to me, and it's her yes that she says tomorrow that matters to me.

What am I saying?

It's a surrendering and it's a staying in the presence of God every day for the rest of your life.

If your purpose feels unclear today, I would encourage you with this one word right here just keep saying yes.

Father, we come and we ask Holy Spirit that as we surrender ourselves to you in this moment.