Life on Purpose

Be praying for that family, uh, if you don't mind as as you go through the week.

Be remember to do that.

So, and listen, real quick before we jump into the message, one of the things I really love about our church, I'm just gonna say this, is that we have a lot of fun on Sundays.

If you're new, we take God really seriously, but we do not take ourselves seriously at all.

Um But there are serious things that happen.

And sometimes there's people in our church that are sick and they need prayer, or some really intense thing happens, and we gotta come around people.

And when when it's serious stuff, I love the fact that we can just jump into that stuff as a church and it's not awkward, it's great.

And you guys are awesome to do that, so thank you.

So we're gonna start a new series today, and it's gonna be something that takes us into Christmas.

So I'm excited about this.

Normally, if you're new, our typical sort of teaching approach is to go straight through scripture.

And so we just finished a nine-week study or ten-week study on John chapter 17, this prayer that Jesus has before he's arrested, and we just went through it bit by bit.

John 17 · chapter mention

Earlier this year, we went through the entire book of Philippians.

Last year we spent the entire year going through the book of Matthew.

We've done Ephesians and Romans and 1 Corinthians and Nehemiah, all kinds of scriptures over the years, just going through books of the Bible or chapters or sections in a really uh intense, deep dive kind of way.

But then every once in a while, in between those, and honestly, when I'm praying through and figuring out what's next, um, we'll stop and do kind of a topical study.

And so that's what we're gonna do for the next few weeks.

And this is something that God has really been challenging me with.

And I realized as I was working on some of this stuff with the Lord personally, is like, oh, maybe it's for more than just me, Lord.

So um, the title of this series that we're starting today is called Life on Purpose.

Life on Purpose.

We want to be people who live life on purpose.

We want to live intentional lives.

The theme scripture that we're gonna look at a lot over the course of this study, kind of our our foundation, is Ephesians 5, 15 through 17.

Here's what it says Be careful how you live.

Not fearful, by the way.

This isn't anxious, it's not careful like you're afraid of what could happen, but it's it's careful in the best sense possible.

But take care.

Be careful how you live.

Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise.

Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

Live on purpose.

Live intentional lives dedicated to discerning what God wants you to do in the season of life that you're in, focused primarily on doing that.

And that is easier said than done.

And I know that from experience because something I say very often is like, oops.

I I didn't mean to do that.

I didn't mean it to come out that way.

I'm so sorry, it was an accident.

I don't know if you've had a lot of uh oops, I didn't mean two moments in life.

I have so many to choose from.

Like like I was thinking this week about some of mine, one time, one time I got caught red-handed uh breaking into someone's personal property, but it was kind of an accident, also.

Okay?

Let me explain.

Probably need to explain that one.

Um so in college, I I had this roommate assigned to me my freshman year of college, and I didn't know this guy.

I went to college in Kansas City, Missouri.

I literally didn't know a single person at the college that I went to.

And uh man, you could not have put two people together who did not belong together as myself and my my first roommate.

And I'll take a lot of the blame for that.

I've been married for 20 years and I'm still learning how to be a good roommate, but uh I was a novice back then, and the problem was, and some of you guys know me well, you can imagine the severity of this, is he was very organized.

And I would say, like, OCD.

And for an OCD person to be assigned me as their roommate, you would have to say, God, what have I done to deserve this?

Like, Lord, if you're a faithful person, you're like, God, why are you punishing me like this?

Because I am not OCD or organized, or just like, you know, generally on top of things for the most part.

And so um, I have lived somewhat, you know, there's a fine line between being spontaneous and and haphazard, especially the 19-year-old version of me.

And so, you know, I get assigned to this guy, and we're roommates, and it does not go well.

It does not go well.

We are not a good fit.

And really, where things took a bad turn is one day I took a Dr.

Pepper from the fridge.

Okay?

He had gone out and it was his fridge, but it was also my TV that we watched DVDs on.

So I'm just gonna say, like, we were sharing stuff, we're roommates, okay?

And he had loaded the little mini fridge that was his with Dr.

Peppers.

And I opened it and I took a Dr.

Pepper.

And I didn't try to hide it, I didn't try to like move the other Dr.

Peppers to make it look like they were all still there.

I was in my mind, I'm like, we're roommates.

I'll grab a Dr.

Pepper, I'll get him something, like, I'll we order pizza, sometimes I'll pay whatever.

No big deal.

But it was a big deal.

It was a big deal.

I know because when I got back, he asked me very pointed, did you take a Dr.

Pepper?

And I said yes.

And then the next day, there was a chain wrapped around the refrigerator with a padlock on it.

Okay?

Which can we all agree is a little over the top.

I told you it was OCD.

So, yeah, there's a chain wrapped around the fridge with a padlock.

And it was the dumbest thing because, I mean, A, just the concept, but B, the way that the chain was even attached to the fridge was like really flimsy.

There was just this little screw that he put in that all you had to do was like twist it and the whole chain would fall down.

It was like stretching this out.

So a friend of mine was in my room, and he's like, dude, what's with that chain and the padlock around the fridge?

And I was like, oh my goodness.

I took a Dr.

Pepper and Ryan's all mad about it.

And I said, and look how dumb this is.

It's not even secure.

All you gotta do is twist this screw.

And I twisted it, and the chain falls off, and the door opens, and there's Ryan.

And I was like, hey, buddy, uh, I know how this looks.

However, I was not trying to break into the fridge to take another Dr.

Pepper.

I was just showing Dwayne the structural integrity issues with this lock system and how I'm sorry.

It was like, what do you do in that moment?

I mean, I was literally, it was like a scene for a movie.

Like, I am bent over, lock falls down, door opens, you know.

And I had to go talk to the R to the RD because Ryan got all mad and said I was taking his stuff, and the RD was like, Did you break into the refrigerator?

And I was like, Yes, but more to demonstrate how easy it would be to break into the refrigerator.

I it's dumb, this whole thing is dumb.

You know.

But that's that's a pretty common occurrence for me in life, not breaking into people's fridges, but uh but just going, oh man, I didn't think that through.

Oops, I didn't mean to, it was an accident, I'm sorry.

And it's easy for life to sort of be like that, at least in seasons, where we go, man, I didn't mean for it to be like this.

This is not what I intended, because maybe I've been living unintentionally.

And that can be in a variety of different contexts.

Sometimes there can be extreme circumstances in life, things that you did not plan for or see coming, and maybe couldn't have even planned for or seen coming.

And in those moments, all your plans go out the window, and you have to pivot and you have to make decisions that you weren't prepared to make, and sometimes that gets dicey.

And yeah, in those situations, there's obviously grace for that.

There's grace for everything with God.

But most of the time that's not what's going on when life takes a turn and we're like, this is not where I thought I would be, this is not how things ought to be.

Oops.

Sometimes it's just that we are crazy, we are busy, you know, we we said yes to a lot of stuff, and life is just ramped up in its in its speed, and we are along for the ride, and it's like a ride that's a little out of control, so we are hanging on for your dear life.

And when you're living like that, when you're living at that pace, and man, you talk about like a busy time of the year, we're gonna have the holidays coming up soon.

That's what happens at this time of the year for almost everybody.

It's easy in this season of life to just be like, man, yeah, I am living so fast, I don't have time to stop, I don't have time to think, I don't have time to plan.

And in that sort of speed and busyness of life, you can have a lot of, oh no, oops, I didn't mean for this to happen, because I've just been sort of going day by day, and frankly, I'm not really living life, life is happening to me.

And that's not an intentional way to live.

That's not gonna produce the results in life that God wants us to have.

And sometimes it's it's not the speed of life, sometimes maybe it's even the opposite.

You're like in a rut, you're stuck, but you're lacking motivation.

You look at your life and you're like, this is not what I thought it would look like, this is not how I thought it would feel at this stage of life, I thought I'd be further along, I thought I'd have more things figured out, and it sort of becomes this kind of depressing lack of motivation, struggle to push through sort of experience, and you go, man, oops, I didn't mean to be in this place in life, I just can't figure out how to move forward.

Or if we're really honest, maybe we made some really tough decisions in the past.

And maybe not even decisions that we would say we regret because every decision has led to us being who we are today.

But you go, yeah, years ago I made some tough calls, some tough decisions, and I'm still sort of living in the aftermath of that.

And because some of those decisions were so tough and the consequences were hard, now I'm having to make tough decisions to try to compensate for those decisions, and sometimes we make bad decisions to compensate for our previous bad decisions, and it's like a compound interest thing, and it's just hard.

And life can become, whatever the context, life can become this sort of oh no, this is not what I meant for.

This is not what I intended.

And I think the opportunity that we have through faith, through the wisdom of God, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit that lives inside of us, that never says, oops.

The Holy Spirit's never like, oh, my bad.

I didn't think about that.

You know?

I know when when that's my life, that was not, I don't go, God, what were you doing?

That was me.

That was all me.

But we have the opportunity to live on purpose, to live very intentional lives.

So again, I want to look at Ephesians 5, 15 through 17 again in that context.

Be careful how you live.

Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise.

Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

Live on purpose.

I want to start this series.

We'll get into some specifics in the weeks to come.

But I want to start this series just by reflecting on the fact that that is exactly how Jesus lived.

And guys, honestly, if there are Sundays where the only thing that really happens is that we walk out of this room and we love Jesus a little more than when we walked in, we're more in awe of him, we understand him better, we see him more clearly, that's always like the ultimate win.

Because he's everything, it's all about him.

And Jesus lived his life on purpose.

Everything he did, he did with intention.

Even the things that Jesus did that we would normally classify as the kind of things that you only do when you're living unintentionally, Jesus did those things on purpose.

Let me explain.

Um when Jesus confused people, he did it on purpose.

I confuse people all the time.

I like how many of you can do that?

How many of you are like, I'm really good at confusing people?

I'm I'm I can even confuse myself.

I have confused myself.

I can do things, and someone goes, why?

And you go, I don't know.

I don't even understand why I'm doing this.

I confuse my kids.

You know, every year I coach youth basketball, and I've I've done it for years, and this year again, fourth grade boys, I'm coaching my son Judah and his buddies, and I know what's gonna happen is there'll be so many times where I'm gonna call a timeout and I'm gonna drop a little something on the little whiteboard, and I'm gonna look in their eyes, and I'm gonna explain it, and I'm gonna see these blank stairs looking back at me, and I'm like, you guys get it?

And they'll nod their heads, and then they won't do it.

In fact, a couple years ago, I had this kid, awesome kid, not complaining about him at all, phenomenal, sweet kid.

But he had this weird thing that he did that I'd never seen a basketball player do, is that he would just randomly do cartwheels on the court for no apparent reason.

You know, we're dribbling down, we're coming, and it's just oh, cartwheel.

And I tried to tell him at first, like, hey man, I need you this by the way, you do a phenomenal cartwheel.

Um, but it's just not really part of basketball, so let's just stop with the cartwheels.

And it didn't stop.

And so eventually I was like, well, maybe I should lean into this.

You know, so one day I draw up a play, I call a timeout, we're we're gonna inbound under the basket.

I'm like, I want you to do a cartwheel.

Because it's gonna distract everybody on the other team.

So as soon as soon as we slam the ball, as soon as the ref hands it's time to inbound the ball, I want you to do a cartwheel right in front of everybody else.

And when the other team turns and looks at you, like, what are you doing?

I want you to pass the ball here, and he's like, Yes.

And I can see in his eyes, this like it's his moment.

You know what I mean?

Because I'm gonna be honest, he wasn't really good at shooting or dribbling or defense or the things that you should normally be good at, but he had cartwheels down, he had them down.

So I'm like, he's gonna do it.

And so we're like, cartwheel play, cartwheel play, here we go.

And so he has the ball, ref hands the the inbound player the ball, and and it's like boom, go, and he just stands there and freezes.

No cartwheel.

And I'm sitting there like the one time I tell you to do a cartwheel, you don't do one.

And so afterwards, it's like, hey, what what happened?

He just kind of shrugged.

And you know, I want to blame him, but I I just know from all the years that I've coached that a lot of times in basketball, um, just my communication style doesn't translate to third graders really well all the time, and so there's a lot of confusion, and it's my fault.

90% of the time.

When they're confused, it's on me.

It's like, my bad, I didn't explain that well.

I didn't, I should have had a video or something to go along with this, I'm not sure, but it's that's my my bad.

Jesus never had that.

There's no moment where Jesus was like, you guys aren't getting it?

Oh, my bad.

Let me let me redo this in a different way.

In fact, there are times that Jesus confused people on purpose.

And so Jesus loved to teach in parables.

He would teach with these stories, but they're sort of mysterious stories.

Parables are extremely simple, but they're not always painfully obvious.

And so, uh, one day in Matthew chapter 13, we have this recorded.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

Jesus' disciples, they come to him and ask, Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?

And that's one of those questions that may be curiosity or it might be like a polite way of saying we think you should do it differently.

Hey, Jesus, we polled the audience.

We did a survey, and yeah, it's just not focus groups are saying it's not testing well, the parable thing.

They don't like it.

They'd like you to just to more straightforward would be great.

And here's what Jesus said You are permitted to understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but others are not.

To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge.

But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.

That's why I use these parables.

For they look, but they don't really see, they hear, but they don't really listen or understand.

This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, When you hear what I say, you will not understand, when you see what I do, you will not comprehend.

For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, they've closed their eyes, so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.

I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see, but they didn't see it.

And they long to hear what you hear, but they didn't hear it.

In other words, Jesus, why do you use parables?

It confuses people, and he goes, I know.

That's why I do it.

I want there to be people that desire to know, that desire to understand, that have a hunger and a thirst to understand the truth of God, that don't just want it spoon-fed to them.

So I'm not really interested, Jesus said, in just doing that.

I I want to teach in a way that if it confuses those who have hard hearts and who have no interest in really learning about the Lord, so be it.

That's a that's a bold stance.

I can be honest, I've given, I don't know how many 600 messages or something like that, 500 plus messages on this stage, and never once has my has my approach on a Sunday morning been like, I'm gonna confuse these people, and they're not gonna have a clue.

I mean, it's probably happened, and and if it does, if it if it happens today, my bad.

That's not what I'm trying to do.

But for Jesus, that's what he did.

But in this intentional way, even the things that Jesus did that normally would be in the category of oops were on purpose.

Here's another category offending people.

I mean, how many times have you offended someone by accident?

I do it all the time.

Years ago, I was probably in my early 20s, and I had a friend named John, and uh John introduced me to this other friend of his at this get together that he was having, and this dude was like six foot three, six four, and and like big and built, and he had tribal tattoos.

He was kind of a scary looking guy.

And my buddy John introduces me to him, and he goes, Oh, hey, hey, this is Justin.

I think you guys will click.

And then this is how he introduces me.

This is the setup John has for me with this huge dude.

He goes, Justin really likes video games.

And I'm like, well, yeah, I mean, I grew up in the 80s and the 90s, and I like, I've played my fair share of video.

I majored in Halo in college, that's basically what I majored in, fine.

But that's not how I would describe myself in like an introduction way, like, hi, I'm Justin.

That's like a hobby I had as a kid.

I felt like I didn't, I don't know, I felt insecure in that moment.

And so I I kind of downplayed, I was like, I mean, yeah, I mean, I like video games.

I'm not one of those people who dresses up like video game characters and goes to stuff.

And he goes, Oh, I do that all the time.

And then he says, in fact, the company that I run, that's what we do is we create really high-end like stuff for those people that go to the conferences and dress up like those characters.

And I was like, Oh, cool.

Uh I mean, I wasn't like knocking that or anything, I was just sort of saying, I like sports too.

You know, I was trying to figure out how to and so I was like, oh, John was using that, not he was trying to make a connection because that giant scary guy was really into that stuff.

And John's like, oh, I think Justin can speak that language with him, and I just ruined it and uh, you know, offended this very large man.

Um, you know?

I've even I've even offended people through my children.

Like one time when my son Liam was in, he's probably four or five.

We were out of town in Missouri visiting my family, and went to this park, and this park was known for ducks, and you could bring bread and like feed the ducks.

And so there's Liam and he's feeding the ducks, and there's this other kid feeding the ducks.

They were standing next to each other, and this kid's parents were standing next to Megan and I, and so it's you know, like one of those parent moments.

Like, oh, that's so sweet, our kids are playing together, and and you know, and then they say, Yeah, we're not from here.

And I was like, Oh, we're not from here either.

We're from Georgia, and then the family goes, Oh, we're from North Carolina, and my four-year-old son goes, North Carolina sucks.

And then he goes back and throws.

And there's just looking at me.

I'm like, Well, I was like, We're Duke fans.

So that's his whole context from he doesn't know what the state is, he just knows he's heard me say things.

Um I'm really sorry.

Like, it's just, man, like by the way, I'm a pastor of church.

You should come check out our church in Georgia.

It's great.

We love we love everybody, even people, even North Carolina.

We love them all.

Um it's like I offend people all the time on accident.

Oops, I didn't mean to.

I was unintentional with my words, I was unintentional with the way I've raised my children.

I was I was not thinking this through.

But when Jesus offended people, he did it on purpose.

Great story in Luke chapter 6 says, on another Sabbath day, a man with a deformed right hand was in the synagogue while Jesus was teaching.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

And the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely.

If he healed the man's hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath.

But Jesus knew their thoughts.

He said to the man with the abandoned hand, or with the deformed hand, uh, come and stand in front of everyone.

And so the man came forward, and then Jesus said to his critics, I have a question for you.

Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil?

Is this a day to save life or destroy it?

He looked around at them one by one.

Think about that.

One by one, Jesus looks at everybody.

That would have taken time.

He just stares them in the eyes.

By one.

Then he said to the man, Hold out your hand.

And so the man held out his hand and it was restored.

And at this the enemies of Jesus were wild with rage and began to discuss what to do with him.

Jesus knew exactly what he was doing.

And he could have done it differently.

It says he knew their thoughts.

He could have come to that man later privately.

And he actually did this many times.

There were many times that Jesus healed people privately and said, Don't tell anyone what's happened.

Because he wasn't trying to get attention for himself.

He was being really wise with that.

Jesus could have done it that way.

In fact, there were times that Jesus healed people from afar.

Jesus could have waited and then just healed the man long distance, and the man just would have been like my hand.

But Jesus, looking one by one at the Pharisees and all the people there who are just itching for something they could accuse him with, he challenges them to their face.

He questions their understanding of God's law.

And then in front of all of them, he says, Hold out your hand.

And he heals the man.

And they are so offended, so upset, that they essentially immediately go and begin to plot how to kill Jesus.

And he did that on purpose.

He did it on purpose.

When Jesus offended people, it was on purpose.

When Jesus got arrested, it was on purpose.

Not many people, let's be honest, not many people have been arrested on purpose.

That's usually the opposite of the story.

When Jesus went to Jerusalem right before he gets arrested during the Passover celebration, he's already a wanted man.

He's already done some things to stir the pot, so to speak.

And so if you're the disciples and you're with Jesus and you're going to Jerusalem, which is kind of the belly of the beast in terms of the headquarters of the Pharisees and all the people who want Jesus dead and have authority and power and soldiers kind of at their command, like they're in Jerusalem.

And so, you know, the disciples are probably like, hey, Jesus, let's like keep a low profile.

And so Jesus goes into Jerusalem and he gets a donkey and he rides in on it and has everybody just shouting, like, Hosanna, Hosanna, save us, and there's this huge commotion, and everybody knows Jesus is here.

So there goes the low profile.

And then if you're the disciples, you're like, well, hey, Jesus, I mean, okay, now everyone knows we're here, but let's really like, you know, let's let's cautiously approach this week.

And so here's what Jesus does first.

Immediately.

Matthew 21.

Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice.

He knocked over all their tables of the money changers and the chair and the chairs of those selling doves.

He said to them, The scriptures declare, my temple will be called a house of prayer, but you've turned it into a den of thieves.

So Jesus goes to the temple and he starts flipping tables over.

And he drives out all the people who are profiting off of people's worship and doing all these kind of financial things that were just shady and wrong.

And he literally, one of the the gospels says that he makes a whip out of leather.

He makes the whip.

He braids a whip.

And then he goes and uses that to drive all the people out.

He causes this huge stir and like, Jesus, what are you doing?

Like you're gonna get in a lot of trouble.

And yeah, he knows.

He intends to.

He's doing this on purpose.

And then John chapter 18.

John 18 · chapter mention

We just went through John 17 the last several weeks.

John 18, after saying these things, after the prayer that he prayed for us that we've been exploring, says that Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees.

Judas, the betrayer, knew the place because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples.

The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and temple guards to accompany him.

And now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.

Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them.

Who are you looking for?

He asked.

Jesus the Nazarene.

They replied, I am he, Jesus said.

And Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with him.

As Jesus said, I am he.

And that I am is the name of God.

It's a unique wordplay.

He says, I am he, but he says God's name is this sort of declaration of who he actually is.

It's powerful.

And it says that as he said that, they all drew back and fell to the ground.

Like the power of Jesus just knocks them down.

And once more he asked them, Who are you looking for?

And again they replied, Jesus the Nazarene.

I told you that I am he, Jesus said.

And since I am the one you want, let these others go.

So think about this: Jesus gets arrested on purpose.

He knew exactly what he was doing when he caused the scene coming into Jerusalem.

He knew exactly what he was doing when he went to the temple and turned over the tables and caused that giant commotion and threatened the livelihood of these corrupt Pharisees who were profiting off of people worshiping God.

And when he saw them coming, he went to meet them.

And he went to meet them head on and then made sure that they would understand I don't have to go with you if I don't want to.

I am who I am.

And he didn't use the opportunity when they all fell down.

He didn't yell to the disciples, run, and they all ran off.

And it would have been a great escape story.

It would have been awesome.

But Jesus stayed right there.

And he's like, I'm letting you arrest me.

Jesus let himself be taken.

He let himself be tortured.

He let himself be crucified.

He let the nails be driven into his hands and his feet.

He let them do it.

He himself said, if I wanted to, I could I could ask my heavenly father and he would send a legion of angels.

He did it on purpose.

Jesus lived his life intentionally.

Life did not happen to Jesus.

He lived life with deep purpose and intention.

And we're called to do the same.

Now are we Jesus?

No.

Are we going to do it as well as Jesus?

Too late.

But we can live intentional lives.

We can live lives that are truly on purpose.

And I would actually say that we we have to.

We have to for our benefit.

For the benefit of the people that we love and live alongside.

Because a life lived without intention is a life that's just tossed about.

It's a life that's at the mercy of your circumstances and the world around you.

And that is not something I intend to live out.

We see language, for example, in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 14 and 15.

Ephesians 4:14

And this describes what the Lord would like our lives to look like.

And it says we will no longer be immature like children.

We are called to be childlike when it comes to our faith, but we're not ever called to be childish in terms of our maturity.

We'll no longer be immature like children.

We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.

We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.

Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

We're called to be like Jesus, and we're called to be people who are resolute, who live on purpose, with direction, with intention, not tossed back and forth by every new thing that we hear and every new trend and every new movement of culture.

When people live like that, they just live lives that aren't grounded, that aren't rooted, and they're just at the mercy of the age in which they live.

Just blown back and forth.

That same language we find used in James, and James is uh is very direct.

Verses 1 through 5.

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, he'll give it to you, he'll not rebuke you for asking.

But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.

Do not waver.

For a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.

Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

We don't want to be unstable people.

We don't want to be people who are or just tossed back and forth like some wave on the ocean at the mercy of the wind.

That's not the life that we're called to.

That's not the life that Jesus lived.

That's not the life that the Holy Spirit wants to produce in you.

Again, Ephesians 5, verses 15 through 17.

Ephesians 5:15–17

This is what we want to live by.

Be careful how you live.

Intentional, on purpose.

Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise.

Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

And don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

Over the course of the next few weeks, we're going to look at what it means to live on purpose.

We're going to talk about what it looks like to be on purpose with our time.

And what a great season of the year to be really on purpose with our time, because this is that time of the year that if you're not intentional, you can just blink and it's next year.

No, let's be really on purpose in this season.

We're going to talk about what it means to be on purpose, intentional, with our hearts, with what we're most devoted to, with our minds, with what we allow to influence and shape the way that we think.

We're going to talk about what it means to be on purpose with our words, with what we say, with what we're trying to accomplish by what comes out of our mouth.

We're going to spend a few weeks studying what it means to be like Jesus and to live on purpose.

But today, more than anything, I just want us to understand that what we're talking about is living like our Savior, living like our Lord.

We are called to be like Him.

That's what it means to be mature.

That's what Ephesians said, right?

We'll be mature, we'll be like Him, like Jesus.

And He did everything on purpose.

No, oops, I didn't mean to, no, my bad.

And obviously we're not perfect, we're not going to live up to that.

But man, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can live with more intention, more focus, and more purpose than we have ever lived before.

And what would happen, by the way, if you know a few thousand followers of Jesus devoted themselves to living carefully, to living purposefully, to living lives focused on what God wants.

That's a powerful thing.

And I actually really believe that so many of you do that.

Like I experienced that.

So many of you are good at this.

And my hope is that something that we'll talk about in the next few weeks is like, yeah, you might be really on purpose with your time and really good at being intentional with your heart, but maybe it's one other area.

We're like, yeah, I need to grow in that.

I hope that all of us grow in at least one of these areas.

And I think it will have a tremendous amount of value when and if we do.

I'll wrap up with one thought.

You know, it said at the end of Ephesians 5, it said that we would not act thoughtlessly, but we would understand what the Lord wants us to do.

And so, worship team, if you want to come back up, we'll uh we'll wrap up.

We've also got four people getting baptized this morning, I believe, so that's exciting.

Got to celebrate that together.

But we're gonna take Lord's Supper, and so when you walked in, there were these cups with bread and juice, and if you missed that or just forgot to grab one, go do that right now.

Feel free.

You're good.

You're good.

Um we take this little meal together every week.

This is something that Jesus followers have been doing for thousands of years.

The bread represents the body of Jesus, it was given up for us as a sacrifice on the cross, and the juice represents his blood, which was spilled.

In Jesus' culture, blood was always connected to life, and it was always understood to be a cleansing thing.

We would look at like a blood stain as something that you would have to get out immediately from clothes because it would ruin clothes.

But it's interesting in the Old Testament, when God instructed the priests with how to make their garments, they would make these beautiful garments, then the last thing they would do would sprinkle it with blood.

Because that was seen as a cleansing.

It was seen as life.

So it's different than maybe the way that we think about it.

But this is the life of Jesus that we have.

And in order for us to live on purpose, it says that we need to understand what God wants us to do.

Romans chapter 12, verse 2 says, Do not copy the behavior and customs of this world.

Romans 12:2

But let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

It's actually what the word repent means.

It means to change the way you think.

Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

I say all that to say this.

Um a series like like this is interesting because, on one hand, we could take this whole live on purpose thing and make it into this personal striving sort of, yeah, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna, you know, buckle down, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna make this happen, I'm gonna live on purpose, I'm gonna live with intention, and it's gonna come out of our efforts and out of our flesh.

And you know, some of us are gonna be better at that than others in different areas, and others of us in other areas, and it's just at the end of the day, that's not what we're talking about.

This isn't like a, yeah, let's do this kind of thing.

This is a let's let God do it in us kind of thing.

Because Ephesians is very clear, the only way to live carefully, the only way to not live like a fool, to not be thoughtless, but to actually live on purpose with intention in the way that God would intend is for you to discern what God wants.

How do you discern what God wants?

Well, you you don't live as part of this world, you don't copy the behaviors and the customs of this world.

Instead, you offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice.

Jesus was a living sacrifice for us.

You give all of yourself to God.

And then it says, you let Him transform you into a new creation.

You let Him change the way you think, and then you will know His will.

So as we set out to study this over the next few weeks, this is not about striving.

This is not about, oh great, here's another thing I have to get better at and do.

Add it to the list.

No, this is about, okay, Lord, I want to be like you.

Jesus, I want to be like you, and I want to be intentional with my time and the way that I speak and what I connect my heart to and what I allow to influence my mind and the way that I think.

I want to be intentional with all of that.

But Lord, I'm gonna have you do the work in me.

I'm gonna have you, Lord, through your spirit, do the heavy lifting.

And I just want to become the person that you would have me to be.

We have Jesus, we have the living God.

He died once, but he lives for all eternity.

He is alive.

He rose again.

This meal that represents his sacrifice does not represent his end.

It represents a moment where he dealt with sin and death once and for all, and now he lives, and his spirit lives in us.

So we can be like him.

And that's what we're gonna go for for the next few weeks to live on purpose like Jesus through the work of his spirit in us.

So with that in mind, let's take the bread.

And let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for this bread.

This is this is your body, Jesus.

Father, we thank you for giving your son as a sacrifice on our behalf.

And Jesus, we thank you for what you did.

You give yourself to us.

This is more than just a symbol.

We have a relationship with you, Jesus.

You give yourself to us, you give your spirit to us, you don't hold back.

And Lord, we want to be like you, we want to live like you as much as possible.

And we will fall short of that, sure.

And we have in the past, and we will in the future, but at the same time, Lord, I believe that because you give yourself to us, all of yourself, because you've given us your spirit, we can live more like you than we often think.

So, Lord, as we take in this bread, help us be reminded that you are part of us, that you are in us, that you are with us because you've given yourself to us, and help us trust the work that you can do in our hearts to make us more like you.

Let's take the bread.

Let's pray for the juice.

Father, we thank you for this cup of juice.

This is your blood poured out as an offering, cleanses us from our sin and gives us new life.

Jesus, we ask that you would fill us, renew us, pour your spirit into us, and I know you already have, Lord, but help us be conscious of that and aware of that.

Help us be obedient to that.

And give us the ability and the strength to live intentional lives on purpose like you.