Life On Purpose | Something's Got To Change

Good morning, church.

Who's excited to be here today?

Come on.

Well, I am so excited.

My name is Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at the Ark.

If we haven't met, my wife Courtney and I would love to meet you in the lobby after service.

We think God is doing some great things.

We're in a series called Life on Purpose.

Who's looking for a little purpose in your life?

I've had so many conversations just in the first couple of weeks of people saying, I've been looking for something more, and I feel like God is going to speak to me.

And I love the way they say that because here's what they're saying.

They're saying, I have great expectation that God has more for me.

I think that's a great place to start in a series like this.

Can we just agree?

We can agree that God has more in store.

And so our heart is this out of the book of Colossians, we've been reading, and uh our heart is that your burden would grow uh more in your own heart for the things of God in your life, and that you would walk and live in the things that He's called you to.

Uh, we are gonna be today in Colossians chapter three.

I'd encourage you to turn it in your Bibles.

If you don't have that, uh our Arc Church app, I don't know if you know this, but our app has the Bible in it.

You can read along there.

How many of y'all are old school?

You just like some good old paper.

You're like, I know it's 2026, it's we live in the digital age, but I just want to let you in on a little secret.

When it comes time for my time with the Lord, I have to put my phone down.

Because I spend so much time on my phone that sometimes it's just good to see a little black and white paper right here.

And here's what I know.

I know that as you read God's word, here's what I believe it never returns void.

It'll always bless you, it'll always strengthen you, encourage you, correct you, and it's our prayer and hope that today is the same.

Colossians chapter 3, if you're ready, say I'm ready.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Since then you have been raised with Christ.

Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated, seated at the right hand of God.

That's where Jesus is, by the way.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Verse 5, put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.

Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is, by the way, idolatry.

Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming.

You used to walk in these ways.

Somebody say, used to.

It's not who I am anymore.

In the life you once lived.

But now you must also rid yourselves of all these things: anger and rage and malice and slander, and yes, even filthy language.

Somebody grab the bar of soap.

Here we go.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge of the image of your creator.

I've titled today's message, Something Has to Change.

Something has to change.

I had a dog once.

For all the animals lovers in the room, you're not gonna like me today, but I can make peace with that.

Don't be judging me, or you'll have to come down front afterwards and repent, okay?

Um, I had a dog once, and uh I know your dog may be cute, uh, or if you're a man in the room, you might not describe it that way.

You may say, My dog's macho.

Uh, regardless, my dog was ugly and wimpy.

Didn't have anything going for him.

And uh the the dog was just crazy.

He just he just did these things that oftentimes had me saying, What in the world were we thinking?

Anybody been there?

Anyone?

What were we thinking?

All the animal lovers are about to call Pete on me today, but I'm okay with that.

It's like I uh I'll never forget this image in my head that I would like to share with you.

One day he did his business on the carpet of our apartment floor.

And after he was done doing his business, he took around laps, victory laps, around the couch, running circles like he had just achieved something great.

And then he jumped up on the couch, and I'll never forget him scooting his backside all the way down the couch in the place where I lay my face every day.

Took our dog to Home Depot shortly thereafter and walking the aisles, and some lady came up and said, This is the cutest dog I've ever seen.

Funny thing, I've never seen the dog again.

I gave the dog away to a stranger in Home Depot.

The morning I gave the dog away, I woke up at 5 a.m.

to the dog doing jumping jacks in my bedroom, and I leaned over to my wife and I said, Something has to change.

Have you ever been in one of those scenarios in your life?

Maybe you had a dog, maybe you didn't.

That's not the point of the story.

The point of the story is sometimes we get to a place where we just can't stand it anymore.

Sometimes we get to a place where we say, This isn't gonna work for me anymore.

What I love about what Paul is doing in Colossians chapter 3 is he's saying, Hey guys, it's time to hit the wall here.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

It's time to change directions.

Because who you were is no longer who you are.

Something has to change.

And he uses this line.

I love what he says in Colossians chapter 3, verse 2.

Colossians 3:2

He says, Set your mind on things above, not on things below.

Something's got to change today.

I believe the burden behind today's message is this something has to change in our minds.

We have to change the way that we think.

I know it may sound cliche, the old phrase, but you change the way you think, you'll change the way that you live.

It's not a new idea.

This is Paul's idea.

It's not Paul's idea, it's the Holy Spirit's idea.

That when God gets a hold of your life and starts doing something great, then something on the inside of you has to begin to take alignment to the thoughts and the ways and the things of God.

Last week we talked about salvation.

We think over 25, 30 people made the decision last Sunday to surrender their life to Jesus.

Come on.

That is an event.

Let me tell you what happened when you made the decision to say yes to Jesus.

You're not simply raising your hand, you're taking a step of faith in obedience.

And when you get saved, here's what happens: it changes who you belong to.

It changes where you're going.

Today I don't want to just talk about salvation because there's another part.

Your salvation is an event.

It happens.

I remember I was nine years old.

I made the decision to follow Jesus with the rest of my life.

And I want to tell you, the prayer I prayed when I was nine, it doesn't matter how old, how young you are, the prayer works.

I prayed that prayer at age nine.

It was an event in my life.

A moment I can look back on and say, I am forever his.

I belong to him because of that moment right there.

But how many of you know it's not just about the event, it's about the process.

God will take you as you are, but then he's gonna do some stuff with you.

The word I want to give today that they'll use in Christian circles and Bible school is the word sanctification.

This is a big fancy word, all just to say the simple truth or the simple reality that Jesus is making us more and more like him every day.

Salvation changes who we belong to, but sanctification, here's what it does: it changes who we're becoming.

I was going this path, but now Jesus got a hold of me, and I just can't help it.

I become a different person.

It's the idea of him making you new, which is why Paul uses all these words in the passage we just read.

You were dead, but now you're alive.

The way you used to walk, but you no longer walk that way.

What's he saying?

He's saying God is still doing as much of a work in you today as the day you raised your hand to say yes to him.

And if he's doing that work, then guess what?

It should change the way you live your life.

But oftentimes, if you're anything like me, there are times in your life where you're trying to make things right and you just can't figure it out.

You may be hitting the wall saying something has got to change, but you just don't really know what to change or how to change, or most of the time feel like you have the power to do it even if you knew what to do.

The truth of the matter is this, my dog, I know your dog may go to heaven.

I'm not so sure about this one that I had, but I do know this.

I know that he really wasn't as bad a dog as I make him out to be in the story.

Because here's what I know he had a bad trainer right here.

And here's what I know.

It wasn't that he never had a future in store, it wasn't that he couldn't have been a better dog if he had been, it was that he needed retrained.

But how many of y'all know retraining is hard work?

It is one thing for all you dog lovers out there who are handed a perfect angel dog from heaven.

Pre-trained.

But when you have to put in the work to take something old and make it something new, when you have to put in the work to take a habit or a lifestyle and retrain it to be something different, how many of y'all know it's work?

But it's worth it.

As I think about it, I reminded of an older elderly woman who gave my wife some advice when we first got married.

I'm not too appreciative of what she said.

I'm not bitter up in here, but I'm just gonna tell you.

Um when she looked at my wife recently after we got married and said, Don't worry, young lady, you'll retrain them.

Those words are stuck in my mind.

Ladies, how many of y'all are still retraining them?

Yeah, I got 50 years of retraining, right?

We'll get there when we get to heaven, okay, ladies?

The idea of retraining, the idea of retraining is it requires work, it requires thought, it requires letting go of the way we used to do things, of thinking things differently than the way we used to think them.

Uh it's it's like that old phrase.

You remember the phrase you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Right?

You know that phrase is not correct, right?

You know, just because people say it doesn't mean it's true.

You can teach an old dog new tricks, what?

If he's willing to learn.

This morning is about having a part posture to learn the new ways of God in your life.

That if you're going to reach God's given purpose, then you're going to have to start thinking the way that he thinks.

You have to retrain your thoughts.

So I love what it says in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Be transformed by what?

The renewing of your mind.

And in Colossians chapter 2, here's what he says.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

Well, in Romans 12, he says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you'll know the will, the good, perfect, and pleasing will of God.

If you want to begin taking steps in the right direction to live the life that God has called you to live, then I want to tell you, it starts right here with the thoughts that you're thinking.

And what I what I love about what Paul is doing is he uses these words as he opened chapter three.

He said, since then.

What he's saying is this: he's saying, since your life is now hidden with Christ in God, uh, we're gonna have to change some things.

Something's gotta change.

Since you are now alive in Christ, there are some things that are going to have to change.

You've got to remember Paul's context.

We talked about this in the opening week of the series, but but but Epaphritz gets saved when he's in Ephesus.

Paul preaches the gospel, and Epaphritz gets radically saved.

He goes home, he tells his friends, he tells his family, and a brand new baby church is born.

People are getting saved, but how many of y'all know just because you made the decision to say yes to Jesus doesn't mean you don't still have a lifetime worth of stuff.

Anybody like moving?

Didn't think so.

Why?

Because you gotta go to the attic and you gotta pull it all down.

And what's happening here is Paul is beginning to dive into their attic.

He's pulling some stuff down, saying, we're gonna have to deal with this.

I know this is how your mom taught it to you, but that's not the way scripture would teach it to you.

I know this is what you learned as a child, but you're gonna have to learn some new ways.

Uh I know this used to be the belief or practice, and so Paul is writing this letter from prison to the Colossians, and he's excited for them.

Good job.

You're saved, you're you love Jesus, and things are looking up and to the right.

He says, but we're gonna have to stop right here.

Because there are some thoughts you're thinking that aren't going to get you where God wants you to go.

You gotta remember the Colossians are a mixed bag of people.

They got beliefs from here and religious practices from there.

They're all new at it.

God's not looking for perfection out of them.

He just pulled a bunch of people together, got them radically saved, and now he says, Now I'm gonna do some surgery.

Now I'm gonna do some work.

And so you got some people in there, they're trying to teach the wrong things.

And Paul's saying, don't watch out for their teaching.

That's not gonna work.

But how many know sometimes it's not just the bad teaching that we hear that gets us messed up.

Sometimes it's our own past, sometimes it's our own history, sometimes it's the thoughts that we think, sometimes it's the thoughts we've held on to longer than we ever should have.

And Paul says, we're gonna get in there and we're gonna work on those thoughts.

They got legalism taken over, they got self-man-made religion taken over, they got ascetic practices, which is basically like if you came to me today and said, Hey, I'm gonna do all these things to earn God's favor, and I'm just gonna try harder and do self-deprecating things to make my relationship with God right.

Well, here's what we learned: Jesus plus nothing is everything I need.

It's not about me trying harder or striving or being the cleanest, best perfect Christian I can be, that that somehow makes things all right.

And so Paul is addressing this group of people, saying, I know you've heard it this way, and I know you've heard it that way, and I know these guys over here are saying this, but Paul says, But I want to tell it to you like it really is.

And here's what he says at the end of Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

He says, You're hearing all of these things, but none of those things have the power to stop the indulgence of the flesh.

In other words, what he's saying is, all the mixed bag of things that you're pulling out of your closet, all the things you've tried, that's not what's going to change your life.

They're not gonna give you the power to stop the indulgence of your flesh.

What does that mean?

Doing whatever you want to do, living the life you want to live.

And so Paul comes in here and he tells them this.

He says, I'm gonna give you a contrary thought to all of that.

And in Colossians chapter 3, verse 2, he says, Set your minds on things above, not on things below.

Colossians 3:2

It's like this turning point in the book of Colossians, where he's laid the groundwork and he comes to this place and he says, Now, here's what I want to tell you.

If you're gonna get to your purpose, if you're gonna get where God is taking you, then you gotta start right here.

You gotta change the way you think.

You gotta change the way that you think about your life, you gotta change the thoughts you think about God, you gotta change the things that you believe.

Why?

What are you doing?

You're making them in alignment with what he says.

The truth of it comes down to this the thoughts you think have power.

The thoughts you think have power to do one of two things.

They can push you in life towards your God-given purpose, or they can pull you away from it.

The thoughts that you think in your mind, the things that you allow to take up space in your mind, have the power to push you into your purpose or pull you away from.

The choice this morning is this.

What am I going to do?

What is my life gonna look like?

And I don't know about you, but here's what I choose to believe at the Ark Church of Magnolia.

Your very presence this morning here today says, I could be sleeping in, but instead I want to know a little bit more about what God wants for me in my life.

Your presence here this morning says, I don't want to do this life on my own.

I've tried all of my own things, I've done everything I can do.

I need God's help in my life.

That's what your presence here today is saying.

But it's gonna have to start with the way that we think.

I want to give you an illustration this morning out of a guy in the Bible.

It's not in the book of Colossians, but his name is Elijah.

There's a man in the Bible who I why I love this story is because he's dealing with the very same things that you and I deal with.

I think sometimes in our life it's easy to look at other people, say, well, they got it all figured out.

Man, they they just, man, they they are really living in their purpose.

Man, it's just really going for them.

Their life is up into the right.

Anybody ever done that before?

You're like, they got something I don't got.

It's so easy to do that, but I want to tell you that even the best of the best have to retrain their thoughts.

And what Paul is getting at is saying this, hey, young baby church, which by the way, we're three years old.

Praise God, we're three, but we still wear pull-ups, okay?

Well, what does that mean?

That Paul's message to the Colossus is the same message to us.

Be careful how you think.

Because it may be going good for you today, but if you keep thinking in the wrong directions, you'll go places you don't want to go.

But the same message he gives to the baby church is the same message he would give to the wise and mature in the faith.

Because here is Elijah.

I'm not gonna read the story today for the sake of time, but Elijah in the Old Testament is a prophet.

He's one of the most well-known characters in the Bible, faith figures in the Bible.

A prophet was somebody who would hear the word from God and he would share it on behalf of the people.

They didn't have the Holy Spirit indwelling in them like we do today.

This was before the cross of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of Pentecost.

And the prophet would come and the prophet would hear from the Lord and deliver the message.

And I just want to tell you, Elijah was living in his purpose.

You want to case study of somebody who was doing what God had called them to do?

Elijah is your guy.

I mean, this guy declared that there would be a drought and there was a drought.

This guy prayed for rain and rain came.

I mean, this is really cool, but Elijah prayed for food, and God sent food by a raven.

I think that's cool.

Some of y'all may be like, that's disgusting.

Just depends on how hungry you are.

You know what I'm saying?

God supernaturally did things in his life.

Elijah's just moving in the things of God, full of faith.

You heard the story of the widow who Elijah prayed and the widow's son came back from the dead.

I mean, talk about living a life of purpose.

Elijah's on it.

You've heard the story of the 450 prophets of Baal.

Right?

We just talked about asceticism, this idea of religious practice and things that you would do to be holy or saved.

And you're finding this mixed bag of religion, and Elijah shows up on the scene, and 450 prophets of Baal are trying to get their gods to show up, only they're not real gods, so they don't show up because the wrong things that we worship have no power to show up in our lives.

And Elijah comes before and says, Well, watch this.

I'm gonna throw water all over the sacrifice, and my God's gonna burn it up.

Fire comes down from heaven.

I mean, we're you talk about living in some purpose.

450 prophets of Baal all die.

And Elijah's like, Look at my God.

He's on a hot streak.

Y'all know what a hot streak is?

I mean, he he is moving, he's got purpose.

He looks at King Ahab and he says, Hey, I know it hasn't rained around here.

This is this ain't in Houston, okay?

Four o'clock in Houston, you see the cloud come and you say, Let me take cover for five seconds while it downpours.

All right, I'll set it.

They haven't had rain.

And Elijah says, King Ahab, look at that cloud, here it comes, you better take off.

And Ahab gets on his horse and his chariot and he takes off.

And Elijah says, Watch this.

And in the super, the Bible says, in the supernatural power of God.

It wasn't by his own strength.

Listen, if you ever see me outrunning a horse, you know it's the power of God moving on my life.

And Elijah takes off running and he outruns King Ahab all the way home.

Talk about a guy who's walking in his purpose.

We read stories like that of people in the Bible, and we think that's great for them, but what about for me?

But I want you to know that even the mighty men of God have moments where they allow the wrong thoughts to enter into their mind.

And after all these incredible things that God did, Elijah gets back and King Ahab's wife, Jezebel, says, You look out, Elijah, I'm gonna take your life, I'm gonna kill you.

And all of a sudden, the man full of faith gets weak.

All of a sudden, that one little thought, that one little suggestive thought enters in his mind.

And the man who was so used to running in the supernatural power of God is now running in the power of fear in the wrong direction.

He gets to a place where he gets out in the middle of the wilderness, he sits down underneath a tree, and he says, God, I'm all alone.

God, I'm not good at God, I don't want to have anything to do with your purpose anymore because I'm not good at I'm not even as good as my father's, he says.

He said, I can't do this.

He uses the words, I know none of y'all have ever prayed this to the Lord.

I've had enough.

And Elijah is sitting there and he begins to pray, Lord, it would just be better if you took my life.

He gets to the lowest of the lows.

I don't know anything in life that is a greater sign of missing purpose than a prayer to say, Lord, just take my life because it's better that I wouldn't be here.

And the man of God who had run in the power of his God is now sitting under a tree wishing his life was over.

And I'm telling you this today because I want to just show you something.

One little thought that can pull you away from your purpose.

What you do with your thoughts matters.

What you do with your thoughts matters.

I want to give you some things.

How do you have thoughts that push you toward your purpose?

The first one is this you have to recognize and reject the wrong thoughts in your life.

When Paul says, set your mind on things above, here's what he's doing he's retraining you to think the thoughts of heaven.

Because he knows that if you begin to think the thoughts of heaven that are in alignment with heaven, then you will recognize when something in your life does not fit.

One of these is not like the other.

This thought doesn't belong with me.

We have to learn how to recognize and then reject the thoughts that are not from God.

The thoughts that don't line up with the scripture.

That's why I love 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 5.

2 Corinthians 10:5

The message says it in the simplest form.

It says this when he says, take hold of your thoughts.

You have two choices in life.

You either take hold of your thoughts or what?

They will take hold of you.

If you don't take hold of your thoughts, your thoughts will take hold of you.

The NIV says it in a little bit more sophisticated way when it says this.

He says, We destroy every lofty opinion and philosophy that raises itself against the knowledge of God.

And he says, and we take it captive to do what?

Make it obedient to Christ.

We have to make our thoughts be obedient to Christ.

We have to take it captive.

I love the word that he uses, every thought.

Doesn't that sound exhausting?

I mean, sometimes it's just a little bit easier to let the wrong thoughts just camp out a little while because I don't really want to deal with it.

There's nothing about this passage.

There's nothing about Paul when he says, set your mind on things above.

There's nothing about Paul that says, you just got saved and now you get to be passive for the rest of your life.

And one day you're going to go sit on a cloud with Philadelphia cream cheese and the angels, and life's going to be good.

No, there is work to do.

You have to take it captive.

Well, what does it mean to take it captive?

I like the idea here of something really simple.

You can't let it take up the real estate of your mind.

Don't let the wrong thoughts have all the real estate in your mind.

You ever have those friends who, if you give them an inch, they will take a mile?

They're like, yeah, they come up from the football game.

Yeah, sure, I got some drinks in the fridge.

Help yourself.

And they come back and they got the Cheetos from the pantry and they're grilling a steak on your back.

You're like, who invited you?

Right?

Your thoughts, say hello to your thoughts, they're even worse than the worst of the worst.

Because you give them an inch and they will run a hundred miles an hour.

Listen, I know this from experience.

I just dealt with this last week.

I came home last week late at night, it's about 10 o'clock at night, and I come in the house, and as I'm going in the house, I notice or hear some disturbance on the street in my neighborhood.

I take my kids inside and I do what all the crazy people neighbors do.

Peeks through the blinds.

I'm standing out in the garage now, in the darkness of the garage, hiding out in the shadows, just peering out to what's going on.

There's a disturbance and it's growing and it's getting worse and worse.

And so I pick up the phone and I call the police.

The police show up on the scene, and I know the heroes are there, so I go back inside.

No, no, no, no.

I'm gonna watch a little bit longer.

So I stand to the side, make sure they got it, you know, just in case.

And then I go inside after watching all of this unfold over the course of an hour, and I go back and I get in my bed, and the second I get in my bed, I have this thought, you know, I should probably check and make sure my doors are locked.

So I get out of bed and I go out and I make sure all the doors that I had already locked are locked.

And then I go back to my bed and I lay down for a few more minutes and I think, you know, I should really check and make sure they're all locked.

You ever done this?

So what do I do?

I go, I go hit every door again.

And I get back in my bed and I start to think, oh man, are my kids okay?

And I get out of bed again.

Listen, I'm the guy who when my head hits the pillow, I fall asleep.

The bed is made for sleep.

I just fall asleep five seconds.

Here, I'm out.

I get up and I go check my kids, I tuck them in, kiss them good night again, I make sure their blinds are closed and all their lights are out.

And what am I doing?

I am allowing my thoughts to run my life.

I get in bed and I start playing the game, what if?

Anybody, uh all-time high scorer of the what if game?

Like, and I'm running through these thoughts in my head.

Listen, these are not thoughts I normally think.

And I have this thought come to my mind, what if you're not supposed to be thinking like this?

And I recognized all of a sudden what I had done.

I had one let one little thought of fear creep into my mind, and it's now running my life.

I remember in 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7, which says this you do not have a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and what?

2 Timothy 1:7

A sound mind.

If you have a spirit of fear roaming and taking up real estate in your mind, I want to make you a promise that you can stand on.

It is not from the Lord.

A spirit of fear is not in alignment with God's word that says a sound mind.

So as I'm laying in bed, I had to make a decision.

God took care of us yesterday, he's gonna take care of us today.

Good night.

My whoop watch said I got 92% of sleep that night.

That's pretty good.

Pretty good.

What does it require, though?

You have to recognize the thoughts that don't belong.

How do you do that?

You read his word.

Why is the preacher on you all the time?

Read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible.

It's not because it earned you to heaven.

It's not because I'm adding things to the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's not by your works, it's not by how many days you got your devotional reading plan done and good for you.

You got all check marks this year.

That's not what it's about.

It's about getting his thoughts in your thoughts.

So when the wrong thoughts come your way, you can recognize them and say, get out of here.

You don't belong.

Because there are these thoughts that come and you'll start thinking, well, I'm all alone and nobody cares about.

That's not the thought from the Lord.

God is with you.

Read the Psalms, it'll tell you over and over again.

The presence of the Lord is with you.

Oh, I don't have purpose in my life.

I'm going to church and they're doing this series on purpose, and probably everybody else has a purpose but me.

That is not a thought from the Lord.

Psalm 139 says, You're fearfully and wonderfully made.

He knows every hair on your head.

If he knows every hair or lack thereof on your head, it means that he knows your purpose all the more.

He created you on purpose.

He has a purpose.

You got to recognize what doesn't belong.

You got to recognize and reject it.

Sometimes I speak out loud.

My kids know I preach around the house.

I'll just start preaching.

My kids know.

They're like my daughter yesterday said, Oh, dad's just preaching, Cullen.

Don't worry about it.

I'm not preaching to you.

I'm preaching to myself.

There are times I have to say out loud, I don't believe that.

I'm not receiving that.

I reject that.

This isn't self-talk.

This is not a self-help book.

I'm not giving you a self-help book I read this week.

I'm giving you the word of God.

The word of God, you're gonna have to reject and take captive the things that don't belong.

There's a difference in a bird that flies by and a bird that builds a nest.

My grandmother, she uh lived in the country and had this big, beautiful window out the dining room table, and we would just sit there at mealtime and look outside, and I just one of the memories I have of her is she really loved birds.

She was just a bird lady.

And uh she'd have bird seed, and and we'd watch beautiful birds come by and all kinds of birds come by, and and they invited it and they loved it.

But the minute those birds made a nest in my grandfather's barn, the bird seed went away and the shotguns came out.

Listen, y'all really gonna call Pete on me today.

I don't know what's happening here, but it's like and I just had this thought.

This is country theology 101 for you.

You ready?

The thoughts may fly by your mind, and that may be outside of your control.

But what you do with them, how you entertained them, that's up to you.

Country theology 101, this isn't complicated stuff, this is really simple.

What are we opening our minds to?

Recognize and reject the wrong thoughts.

Number two is this you have to replace the wrong thoughts with the right thoughts.

Replace the wrong thoughts with the right thoughts.

Listen to this.

Your mind will lead you to the things that you fill it with.

Your mind will lead you to the things that you fill it with.

How do I know?

Just take Elijah's life for an example.

She's gonna kill me.

She's how many of y'all know he played that voice on repeat?

She's gonna kill me, she's gonna kill me, she's gonna kill me.

Turned into him in the wilderness, all alone, where nobody could kill him, saying, I should just kill myself.

What happened here?

The thoughts on replay in his mind that he was filling himself with took him to that very place.

Well, what were his thoughts?

I'm all alone, I'm all alone, I'm all alone.

What is he saying?

He he's not he didn't mean physically he was all alone.

He meant what he thought was there's no other believers out here, there's no other people who fear God and honor God with their life.

And he starts believing a lie.

Can I tell you that wasn't true?

Because God later comes in and said, Actually, there's 7,000 that haven't bowed their knee.

Elijah, you're not alone.

But how many know the truth didn't matter in that moment because in his mind he believed the lie?

I'm all alone, I'm all alone, I'm all alone, led to what?

Him sitting in the wilderness doing what?

Being all alone.

It was the idea, I can't do this, God, I can't do this.

What did it cause him to do?

He laid down his purpose in the wilderness.

The man who was following after God, he set it all down.

If if you don't fill your mind with the right things, you will go to the wrong places.

If you don't fill your mind with the right things, you'll go to the wrong places.

That's why Paul, in another letter to another church, the book of Philippians, same idea, same concept, chapter 4, verse 8, he says, Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.

If, ladies, you're like, come on, baby, this is me.

Think about me, right?

It's like he's saying, fill your mind with the right things.

Think about these things.

Why would he be telling us to do this?

Because when the right things come in, the right things come out.

What goes in?

Do I have to give you a biology?

What goes in must come out.

And so he encourages them in this.

And I just I I want to speak to this, to our church for just a second.

I I um I want you to know I love you and I'm praying for you.

And sometimes I just want to tell you what you want to hear, but I know I can't do that and be accountable before the Lord.

I gotta tell you what you need to hear.

I hear this question all the time.

I am struggling so hard with my purpose.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

I I can't figure this out.

And I'll hear people listen, most of the people in the room, we often feel like we're struggling with our purpose.

And oftentimes, what I've realized in these counseling sessions and in these environments is the reason we're struggling to fulfill our purpose is because we are filling our minds with the wrong things.

The greatest struggle, listen, is this, listen, I God put a purpose on your life, and you are qualified by Him to do it.

Your struggle against your purpose is not because you're underqualified.

The second you believed in Jesus, you got the Holy Spirit, and you have all the qualification of heaven you will ever need.

You're not underqualified to do what God has called you to do.

The struggle in your purpose is not because you're not good enough to do it.

The struggle in your purpose is not because God forgot you somehow and didn't give you purpose in your life.

If you're breathing today, you have a purpose on your life.

Those are not the reasons behind your struggle.

Oftentimes the struggle to fulfill our purpose is because we've been filling our minds with all of the wrong things, hoping that we will get the right outcome in our life.

And it simply doesn't work that way.

We have to change the way that we think.

In order to change the way that you live, you gotta change the way you think.

In order to change the way you think, you gotta change the input of what's coming in.

So, can I just tell it to you like it is?

We have to stop scrolling on our phones 24-7.

That may be the most spiritual thing I tell you today.

Stop scrolling.

I'm not being religious, I'm not being legalistic, I'm not adding anything to the message of Jesus.

Your phone is not a bad thing, it can be used for a lot of great things to build the kingdom of God.

I'm not anti-phone, I'm anti the wrong things being deposited in you.

Is what you're filling your mind with 24-7, is it keeping you from living out the purpose God has for you?

Because oftentimes what I find is your purpose is on the other side of the couch.

Your kids are sitting right there.

I know we got work, I know we got things to do.

It's sorry, but it's the trash shows on Netflix.

Oh, but it doesn't affect me.

Yes, it does.

Because everything you open the door to has to come out.

It's it's the idea of even listen to this one.

I'm gonna step on some toes.

Just why we're at it.

Second service, why not?

It's the amount of news that you consume.

You need to know what's going on in the world, that's part of your Christian responsibility.

But you're not made and designed to know everything going on in the world all the time.

24-7.

Listen, you you know, I think one of the challenges is that we live in a generation that doesn't yet know how to process all the information we have coming in our sources of input.

And so we have to make this decision.

Consuming all this news and all this information, is that really helping me fulfill my purpose?

Or is it slowing me down?

Hear my heart today.

I'm not being legalistic, I'm not adding things to you, I'm not anti-the world.

Here's what I'm saying: Jesus says, You're gonna live in the world, but you're not gonna be of the world.

You gotta set your mind on things above.

What are you filling your life with?

And it's quite simply this it's because we're not superheroes, we're not superhumans.

We we we can't fill ourselves with the wrong things and then wonder why I am having such a hard time standing against the sin in my life.

Well, it's because we keep putting it in.

The Lord has already said that you're dead in your old life and he has made you new.

In other words, everything about you is all cleaned up.

The challenge now is in the process of sanctification to stop going back to old wells, to stop going back to old ways of thinking, to stop going back to our old life and trying to bring it into our new one.

And the Lord says, That's that's not gonna work.

You're not a superhuman.

Our youth pastor's son hopped out of the car the other day and he jumped out of the car.

He said, I'm the real life Spider Man.

I was like, that's so cute.

I had to tell my son, Keith, I had to tell my son that he's not a real superhero.

Because my son was climbing up on top of counters and jumping off.

He was climbing up on top of furniture and jumping off.

And I got him one day and I grabbed him by the shoulders and I said, Look at me, son, you are not a superhero.

Tears running down his face.

Well, you are not a superhero.

Why?

Some of y'all thinking I'm a bad parent.

That doesn't make me a bad parent.

Can I tell you that makes me a really good parent?

Why?

Because I'm telling him what is real, not pretend.

I'm telling him, if you keep going down this path, son, you're gonna get hurt.

My job as a parent, I'm here to protect you.

I'm here to make sure you even make it to your God-given destiny, son.

I got one job in life and you're making it real hard.

You know?

It's like, but why am I doing that?

I'm doing that because I love him and I want his God-given purpose to come out of him.

Listen, some of y'all come to church this morning, just a little shakeup this morning.

I'm putting my hands on your shoulder, just saying, watch what you're filling your life with, because you're not a superhuman.

You can't have all this come in and think you're gonna get a different result.

The Lord says, that's why Paul says this in Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

He looks at him and he gives them this put to death those things.

Why is he telling them to put it to death?

Because the day I surrendered my life to Jesus is the day I said, I no longer get to think the way that I want to think.

The day I gave my life to Jesus is the day I had to say, I don't get to do the things that I want to do.

The day I surrender my life to Jesus, listen, this is not just because I'm in ministry and I'm a pastor and I have to do these things.

This isn't about my job as a pastor, this is about my calling as a believer in Jesus Christ.

The same for me is the same for you.

And that is this we surrendered our right to fill our lives with whatever we want to fill it with.

And we have to surrender it over to Jesus every single day.

It's the process of sanctification, which is why Paul is so strong here in Colossians 3.

We'll end with this.

He's so strong when he says, put to death, therefore, whatever belongs in you, these earthly things, sexual immorality, it has to go.

Impurity.

You can't look at whatever you want and expect good things to come out.

Lust, evil desires, greed, which is idolatry.

Because of these, he says, the wrath of God is coming.

He goes on and he says, anger, rage, malice, slander.

Is this it, Lord?

Filthy He's got a list.

Filthy language has to be far from your lips.

It's it's not just about being a good Christian, a good Texas Christian.

This is about him saying, That's not who you are anymore.

It's not a choice.

So I think sometimes I have to retrain myself in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I used to be okay with that, but I'm not okay with that anymore.

Somebody may look at you in your life and say, Well, you we used to do this all the time, us boys back in the day.

And you have to say, Well, that's not who I am anymore.

Oh, you just got weak and soft.

No, I didn't get weak and soft, I actually got strong.

It's not who I am.

So if you'd stand this morning, I just want to ask you this as we close.

What is a thought in you that has to change today?

Elijah.

God takes Elijah, takes him to the top of a mountain.

Says that God didn't come to him in a fire, which was important because he just watched God come in a fire.

450 prophets of Baal.

He didn't come to him in a fire, he didn't come with him in wind.

It says that God whispered to Elijah.

You want to know what he said?

He didn't answer Elijah's problems, he didn't give him a theological discourse, he didn't correct him on all the things that he was thinking wrong.

You know what he did?

God gave Elijah purpose again.

He looks at Elijah and he says, You're gonna go anoint a man named Elisha.

If I was Elijah, I'd be like, Is that all you got to say?

Come on.

Your whisper.

His whisper brought him purpose again.

It didn't answer all his problems, it didn't answer all his questions.

You know what it did?

It gave him purpose again.

Because God knew this that if Elijah would keep walking in his purpose, two things would happen.

He would anoint Elisha, and one day you want to know who wipes out Jezebel, who gave him that spirit of fear?

Elisha gets up from there, and in 2 Kings chapter 8 and 9, you know who gets wiped out?

2 Kings 8 · chapter mention

Jezebel does.

Why?

Because Elijah kept walking in the purpose that God whispered to him.

Do you want to know who never even died?

Elijah, the Bible says that God just took him up.

I want to show you how powerful this is.

Because Elijah's sitting in the wilderness thinking, My life is over, I'm done, it's never gonna work.

And the Lord says, if you'll just keep on keeping on in the middle of the purpose that I'm whispering to you, you're not even gonna taste death.

And God just took Elijah supernaturally up.

The man who said, I'm just gonna kill myself is now the man who is in the presence and the power of the Lord.

Why?

Because God's whisper has the power to download in your mind a thought you've never thought before, and it'll keep you going.

So you bow your heads and close your eyes.

Father, we give the Holy Spirit permission right now.