Real Purpose

So let me ask a question real quick.

This might make you think a little bit about a recent experience of yours, maybe something a little further back.

But have you ever been faked out?

Like royally?

You thought something was gonna happen, you thought you were gonna have an experience, that things were maybe gonna work out a certain way, and then the reality did not match what you thought.

You got faked out.

That happened to me this last weekend.

On Friday night, Megan had a lot of her friends over to the house.

They were gonna have a little get together, all girls.

And so I decided it would be a good night to make myself scarce, and a really good night to have some time with my oldest son, Liam.

He's six, he's awesome.

We've got two younger ones, and he helps us so much around the house.

It's it's amazing how often we're asking Liam to go upstairs and get something and grab something.

He's just so helpful.

So I love opportunities to take him out and give him some one-on-one time.

And so I went to Liam and I asked him, hey, do you want to go out and have kind of some some one-on-one time with dad?

He said yes.

I asked him what he wanted to do.

He had no ideas.

Which to me was permission to go ahead and inject maybe what I would like to do.

And I decided that we should go see the new Star Wars movie.

Okay?

So I hadn't had not seen it yet.

Really, we we have three children under the age of six and under.

I mean, we don't go to the movies anymore.

That's that's like a long distant part of my life going to the movies.

I hadn't been in a long time, and so I told him we'd go see it, and and I had seen the trailers.

I'm not crazy into Star Wars, but I mean it's Star Wars, it's like my childhood.

So it looked really good, and I saw in the trailers that like Darth Vader was in it, right?

And that's not a spoiler because it's in the trailers.

So if you didn't know that, it's not my fault.

But but I was excited to see it, and so I kind of got him pumped up.

We went to the theater.

I had not been to the movies on a Friday night since I was probably in like college, and I forgot, oh yeah, lines.

Like we should have gotten here a little earlier.

We we got there, we waited in line, then we had to go in the the second line to get concessions and and we had to you know pay for popcorn and bottles of water.

Um if Megan had been with us, we would have just snuck food in.

I'm just gonna be honest with you, that's what we would have done.

Um because by the way, that's not wrong.

Because if you if you bought that, that belongs to you.

That is your private property.

You paid for it, you didn't steal it.

What is wrong is charging five dollars for a bottle of water.

That's wrong.

Okay.

But Megan was not with us, and I'm not about to start carrying a man purse, and so we just went ahead and bought the popcorn and the bottles of water.

Then we sat down and the preview started, and previews are long now in movies, long, 40 minutes of previews.

I'm probably exaggerating, but not by much.

Finally, the movie starts.

All this buildup, the line to get in, the line to get our concessions, the the wait for the movie, the previews, and all that, and we we finally start the movie, and it's Star Wars, man.

And it's it's just awesome.

It feels like Star Wars.

I'm excited, I'm into it.

I really connect with the story, I'm following it, it's kind of a different story that I haven't really known before.

And then all of a sudden I get this tongue on my arm, and it's Liam about 30 minutes in.

And he says, Dad, can we leave?

And obviously, I'm thinking, no, we cannot leave.

Because if you even knew how much money I have spent just for us to be here right now, there's no way we're leaving.

I said, son, just know, we're watching the movie, we're here, we need to do this.

And 10 minutes later, he tugs again, Dad, please, my head kind of hurts.

I don't want to be here.

I'm not enjoying the movie.

Can we go?

And I'm at this dilemma because I told him this was his night.

This was all about him.

Right?

And he doesn't want to be in the movie anymore, he doesn't want to do it.

He says his head's hurting, and sometimes he means that, sometimes that's just an excuse to get out of doing something.

But I'm not really sure.

And if I really do believe that the night's supposed to be his, I should at least be open to go ahead and changing the plans.

But I decided to make one more appeal, one more, one more hopeful appeal to change his mind.

So I said, son, I didn't want to tell you this.

I didn't want to spoil it for you, but I heard.

I heard that toward the end of this movie, Darth Vader's in it, and it's awesome.

And he just looked at me and said, Dad, I already know what Darth Vader looks like.

Can we please go?

And so, 40 minutes into the movie, we stood up and walked down the stairs, and I paid like 50 bucks to see 40 minutes of the new Star Wars movie.

It's all good.

I'll just wait until it comes out on TV at home, you know, which is totally the same experience as watching it in the theaters.

It's gonna be great.

It's gonna be great.

I got faked out.

I got my hopes up, I thought something was gonna happen, it didn't happen, and the reality is that is a very, very common situation that we find ourselves in.

Sometimes it's funny and humorous and lighthearted, sometimes not.

Sometimes the deception is not unintentional, sometimes it's purposeful, it's it's some organization, it's some person that we think we get, we think we can trust.

Someone that makes us a promise, someone we put our our belief into, and we're just let down.

Because reality doesn't match the sales pitch.

And if we're not careful, we can get really cynical and we can start to believe that we can't trust anyone, that no one in this world lives up to their promises, that everyone and everything will let us down, but that's not actually true.

Because, number one, there are way more honest, genuine, loving, high character people in the world than we sometimes give the world credit for.

But number two, we have Jesus.

And Jesus does not fake anyone out.

Jesus is as genuine and honest and real as it gets.

That's just who he is.

In fact, Christmas Eve, if you were here, we we talked about the fact that Christmas Eve is the story, Christmas rather, is the story of a real God making himself real to us.

He came and lived life as one of us, he made himself real at our level.

I mean, Jesus is just real.

The way he lived his life, it was it was real.

He never over-promised and under-delivered, he never tried to sell anyone.

In fact, Jesus, had he been a salesman, would have been the worst salesman ever.

Just the worst.

Because see, he would do these things, he would do these amazing miracles that would get everybody excited, everyone would be talking about it, all this buzz, and all these people that are willing to maybe follow him because of the thing they've seen him do, and then he would say something, he would make the sales pitch, and it would just completely destroy whatever hope those people felt of following Jesus.

Like, for example, in in Mark chapter 10, I'm gonna have to read the screens because my iPad failed me, but Mark 10, 22, Jesus says this He says that the world, all the nations of the world will hate you because you belong to me.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

All the nations in the world will hate you because you belong to me.

And if you had been like Jesus' publicist or something, uh go go back to I I said the wrong verse.

See, I told you, technology.

I it failed me and I failed my team.

But uh Jesus said the whole world is gonna hate you.

Yeah, it's actually Matthew, because you you follow me.

Maybe Matthew.

It's all good.

Just take it down.

We'll get there later.

If you're new to his hands, I'll just get this out of the way.

Um, we're not a professional church, but we are a real church, so that's good.

Um, so Jesus said, All the nations of the world will hate you because you follow me.

And if you had been like a publicist of Jesus, you would have been like, No, Jesus, these people, they're willing to follow you.

Why don't you say something like, I don't know, the world will love you because you follow me?

That would be way more effective.

Way more effective.

Or like in in Luke chapter 9, Jesus says to this group of people that are willing to follow you.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

He says, if any of you want to be my followers, you should give up your own way.

Take up your cross daily and follow me.

I mean, take up your own cross.

That meant be willing to die, which is not something people tend to sign up to do, left and right.

And give up your own way.

We're 2,000 years away from the phrase, have it your way, being trademarked.

Jesus could have gone with that.

He could have said, Hey, you want to be my follower?

Guess what?

Have it your own way.

Have it your way, it's all gonna work out.

But he says, give up your own way.

See, Jesus didn't sell anyone ever.

There was no sales pitch with Jesus, there was no attempt to try to promise you something and then fake you out later.

Jesus is real in every sense of the word.

In fact, Jesus is in a unique position to be the one person in this world who can actually offer us the real version of everything we need.

Because Jesus is both God, so he has all this power, and he's a man.

He lived life as one of us.

He experienced real life, so he gets it.

He can empathize, he understands what it is we really crave, what we really desire, and Jesus offers us what is real.

Real hope.

Real love, real peace, real joy, real wisdom.

Jesus gives us the real version of everything this world is trying to sell us left and right.

And here we are at the start of a new year.

And I don't know about you, but I don't want to be faked out this year.

I want to put my hope and my trust in something that actually delivers.

I want what's real.

I want a year that is filled with all the real that God has for me.

So we're gonna begin our year exploring what Jesus really gives.

And we're gonna start with purpose.

I didn't want to start with purpose, I wanted to start with passion.

I'm passionate about passion.

I want to wake up in the morning excited to live.

I want to have this passion for living, this hunger and enjoyment of life that just makes me wake up in the morning looking forward to whatever it is I have to do.

But as I thought about it and prayed about it, I realized that passion and purpose go hand in hand.

You can't just say to yourself, I'm gonna be passionate.

And be passionate.

Passion is the byproduct of knowing your purpose and having a purpose that is worth living for.

Jesus offers us real purpose.

And see, as a person, it can be difficult to know what your purpose is.

It's challenging.

There's a lot of people in the world searching for their purpose, searching for the meaning in life.

There are many things in this world that have a very clearly defined purpose.

Like plungers, for example.

Okay?

There has never been a plunger that looked up to heaven and said, Why am I here?

What's my purpose?

And I haven't I haven't shared this story in two years, so I think that that means it's fair game.

Um, Megan loves it when I share this story.

But the biggest fight that Megan and I had our first six months of marriage, 11 plus years ago, was over a plunger.

We got married pretty young.

I was 21, she was 20.

We lived in in a dorm room at our college.

She lived in the girl's dorm, I lived in the guy's dorm.

By the way, living in a men's dorm is not good preparation for living with a woman and being married.

It's like the worst training you could possibly have.

But you know, we figured out a way to make it work.

So we got married, then we moved in together, and we didn't have a lot of the stuff that you're supposed to have to live independently, because dorm rooms don't provide those things for you.

So we we we registered for things for our wedding.

A lot of people bought us stuff like pots and pans.

No one bought us a plunger as a wedding present.

Not one person.

I'm pretty sure we registered for one.

But Megan sent me to the store within the first few weeks to buy a plunger.

She sent me to Walmart, she said, hey, we we need this.

It's it's like the last thing to complete our home.

And so I went to Walmart and I bought a plunger, and I bought a plunger.

A bellows plunger.

Have you ever seen those?

They kind of look like an accordion on one end.

It's a plunger that says to you when you walk past it, I can do the job.

I mean business.

I mean they're like they're like big plungers.

They they look like a functional tool, they look like something that, you know, it just looks like it's effective.

And so I bought this plunger, I brought it home, and Megan took one look at the plunger, and she made this face that I would become very accustomed to over the years.

But it's a face of confusion and disappointment.

And she looked at me and she said, Why did why'd you get that plunger?

And I was like, I don't know, I just spoke to me.

It it I'm like, why?

It's it's a plunger.

I mean, I I'm pretty sure it's gonna work.

So, mission accomplished.

She said, No, it's just it's ugly.

And then I look back at her and I'm sitting here going, wow, I did not realize plungers were decorative items in a home.

I had no clue that this was something that could double as like a centerpiece when we invite people over for dinner, right?

In my home, the plunger is the thing you you don't even want to know exists until you need it.

You just put it under the sink and you bring it out when it's necessary.

And so I put the plunger where it belongs, under the sink, and then we went about our day, out of sight, out of mind.

Until about two months later.

There's all this commotion in our bathroom.

We just hear this noise, and we go in and the the whole toilet is just overflowing onto the floor.

Let me just say this our apartment cost$385 a month, and we got ripped off.

That's just, I need you to understand how nice our apartment was, okay?

$385 a month, and it was overpriced.

So just had a lot of issues.

And so all this water is is pouring out onto the floor.

There's a clog in the toilet, but it's okay.

I bought a plunger.

I'm prepared for this.

And so I look at Megan and I say, hey, get the plunger.

This is my my first chance as a man to like solve a problem, you know?

Like do this for my wife.

And she made another face, different face, face of guilt, shame.

And she said, Well, I may have thrown it away.

Right?

Right?

And I'm sitting there, and guys, men, just be in my mindset for a second.

There is water flowing all over the floor.

I bought a plunger, and she says, I threw it away.

So I look at her and I said, Why?

Why did you throw it away?

She said, Well, it it was dirty.

And I'm like, that's its entire purpose in life.

That is why it exists.

That's why they make it.

You don't throw away a plunger because it gets dirty.

You just wash it off or something.

I don't know.

It's just it's supposed to be dirty, it's a plunger.

And I got really upset and she got really defensive because I was on the offensive, and she said, Well, if you want to get mad at someone, get mad at yourself.

Because you actually threw it away.

And I'm like, What are you talking about?

She said, I put it in the garbage, but you're the one that takes the garbage out.

So you threw it away.

About lost my mind.

Oh my goodness.

I I stormed out of the house, went to Walmart, I bought the exact same plunger.

The exact same one.

Which uh which we had until we moved and it mysteriously vanished.

Now we have a much cuter, and I'll be honest, much less effective plunger, but whatever.

Um start the year talking about something important in church together.

Isn't this good?

It's good.

Plungers have a defined purpose.

It's clear.

And it's not to be pretty.

But as people, no one ever really sits us down and says, This is why you exist.

This is why there is air in your lungs, this is why your heart is beating, this is why you're alive.

And so we have to sort of search for our purpose.

And that can be very, very difficult.

That can lead us down a lot of paths.

We can become very, very aimless in life.

Doing a lot of things, having a lot of motion in our lives, but not a lot of meaning behind it, is we search for our purpose.

We have a crazy tendency as people to settle for lesser purposes than we're created for.

We do.

I heard a pastor say this once years ago when I was in college, and at first I wanted to disagree with him because it just didn't sound super hopeful.

And I want to be an optimist.

I believe Jesus, I believe God is an optimist always.

He's the best.

And as I thought about it, what this pastor said, and I reflected on my own life, I realized there's so much truth there.

He said that the purpose for most people's life is nothing more than their own personal security and comfort.

That what's motivating most of the decisions that people make is nothing more than their own personal comfort and security.

And I thought about my life and how often I make decisions that are based on me personally being more comfortable, me personally being more safe and secure, feeling that.

And look, there's nothing wrong with comfort, there's nothing wrong with security, but but if that is the driving force behind our lives, we will not be fulfilled as people.

Jesus actually taught on this.

In Luke chapter 12, verse 16.

Luke 12:16

Jesus tells this story of a rich man.

And he says, This a rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops.

And he said to himself, What should I do?

I don't have room for all my crops.

And then he said, I know, I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones.

Then I'll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods.

And I'll sit back and say to myself, My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come.

Now take it easy, eat, drink, and be merry.

But God said to him, You fool, you will die this very night, then who will get everything you worked for?

Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth, but not have a rich relationship with God.

In other words, Jesus is saying, look, if your if your motivating purpose in life is just to have more, so you have more, you will not be fulfilled.

There is a missing component.

There is an element to your life related to God that has to be present for you to have true meaning, purpose, and fulfillment.

If you really want to be passionate about life, it has to be present.

If our lives are only about us, we will never be fulfilled.

Look, if having more personal comfort and security made your life more fulfilled, more satisfying, that would mean that wealthy people would never struggle with depression.

But statistics show that the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to battle depression.

The nations in the world that have the highest percentage of wealth also have the highest percentage of depression and deep dissatisfaction with life.

So personal comfort and security, it's not enough.

You might set a goal for yourself physically.

Maybe it's to be in better shape.

And that's a fine goal, especially if it's motivated by something bigger than you, like to be present for your family and build more memories.

But if you're just trying to be in good shape so that you look good, that'll never be enough.

Because believe it or not, I actually go to a gym and uh and there's all these there's all these guys at the gym.

And I go pretty much the same time every day, so I see these guys.

And they're very interesting people.

Because they look in the mirror a lot.

Like very frequently.

Like they'll they'll do an exercise and then immediately go look in the mirror as if in the last 30 seconds something has changed.

And these guys are all like the same guy.

They have they have arms the size of legs and oftentimes legs the size of arms, but they're just very skip leg day.

So they're just they're like obsessed.

And they're not they're not working out to be healthy, they've crossed that line.

Now they're just working out to look good.

And it's never enough because they never stop looking in the mirror.

If our dreams are only as big as us, we we will never live fulfilled lives.

If the dreams we're only passionate about seeing through are our own, it will never satisfy us.

If the problems that we care about are only our own problems, we will never understand what it's like to have a passion for living because real passion comes from real purpose.

And Jesus always, always gives us purpose.

You see that in his whole life story.

He's always interacting with people and he's he's changing the driving purpose behind their lives.

For example, there was a fisherman named Peter.

His name was actually Simon, but Jesus changed his name to Peter.

And in Luke 5, starting in verse 1, we actually get to see this moment in his life that changes everything.

Okay?

It says one day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God.

He noticed two empty boats at the water's edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets.

Now understand, these are not little like rowboats, these are commercial fishing boats, these are substantial boats.

Okay?

So it says, stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water.

So he sat in the boat and he taught the crowds from there.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Now go out where it's deeper and let down your nets to catch some fish.

Master, Simon replied, We worked hard all last night and we didn't catch a thing.

But if you say so, I'll let the nets down again.

Now just to understand what's going on here, Jesus is a carpenter by trade, Peter's a fisherman.

And you know how when people who don't understand what you do tell you how to do what you do?

It's fun, right?

That's what's happening.

That's what's happening for Peter.

He's basically saying, Hey, you know, look, you're Jesus and all.

That's great.

I happen to fish for a living, and in that period of time on the Sea of Galilee, they didn't fish during the day, they fished at night, and he had fished all night long, not a bite.

But he says, Whatever, I'll humor you.

Okay?

So at this time they they let their nets down again, and their nets were so full of fish they began to tear.

A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.

How many fish there are.

By the way, these fish were like sardines.

That's what they fish for in the Sea of Galilee.

That's a lot of sardines.

When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, Oh Lord, please leave me.

I'm too much of a sinner to be around you.

For he was awestruck by the number of fish that they had caught, as were the others with him.

And his partner, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.

Jesus replied to Simon, Don't be afraid.

From now on, you'll be fishing for people.

And as soon as they landed, they left everything and they followed Jesus.

See, you gotta understand who Peter is.

I think many of us will relate to this.

Peter's a man that's been passed over his entire life.

In that day and time, the best and the brightest were selected by rabbis at a young age to train underneath the rabbis.

That was the highest position of honor you could have in Jewish culture, but Peter had not made that cut.

And so Peter had become a fisherman.

Believing that that was the pinnacle of his purpose in life was to catch.

Fish.

And Jesus says, You have a greater purpose that you haven't even tapped into.

And if you'll follow me, I'll make you a fisher of men.

I'll give you a purpose for life that echoes beyond your life today.

Jesus did that for so many people.

Not everybody accepted the purpose that he offered.

In Mark chapter 10, which we've already seen the first part of on the verse.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Verse 21 says, looking at this man, and this man is this very rich young man that's come to Jesus.

This man has everything and yet he has nothing.

He's the perfect example for us to remember that comfort and security is not enough to fill our lives, because if that was enough, this man wouldn't have come to Jesus in the first place.

But Jesus felt genuine love for him.

There's still one thing you haven't done, he told this man.

Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

Then come follow me.

And when this man heard this, his face fell and he went away very sad, for he had many possessions.

So this man, he gets the same offer as Peter.

Follow me.

Follow Jesus and trade in your earthly value for eternal value.

Jesus was giving this man an eternal purpose.

This man wasn't willing to accept, and the result is that he walked away dejected and sad.

What I want us to understand this morning is that all of us have been given an eternal purpose by God.

Every single one of us has a purpose for living that is so much greater than ourselves.

Maybe you're a passionate follower of Jesus.

Maybe you're someone that isn't even sure about the whole Jesus thing yet.

You're kind of figuring that out.

But know this Jesus will change everything in you for the better.

And if you have a relationship with Jesus, he will transform who you are and he will make you into the person you were created to be, but not just for your own sake.

He will call you and invite you into something so much bigger than yourself, into something that has eternal value.

And you will only be satisfied in life living in pursuit of something that has eternal value.

And the reason's pretty simple.

You're an eternal person.

That sounds kind of strange to say.

We don't tend to think of ourselves as eternal beings.

That sounds kind of haughty.

But the Bible makes it clear we're not bodies.

We're a lot more than just flesh and blood.

We have a soul, we have a spirit that endures, that lives on, and there will be a day when our time as a person on this earth, in this life, will be so brief a moment in our history, it'll be like a speck.

Because we live eternally through Jesus.

And as eternal people, only an eternal purpose can satisfy.

If you want 2017 to be a year that you're excited to live, you need to say yes to the eternal purpose that Jesus offers.

Because he's going to give you purpose.

In fact, in Romans 8, 28, the Bible says that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose for them.

You have been called according to a purpose.

God has called you, he's invited you into a purpose for your life.

That's actually what that word called means.

It literally translates invited.

God has invited you into a purpose.

And so what is it?

What is it?

I'll put it simply.

It's to build bridges.

Exciting, right?

I knew everyone would cheer when I said that.

I knew it.

To build bridges.

In Revelation chapter, someone's real passionate about bridges on the right side of the room.

In Revelation chapter 1, verse 5, it says, All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us.

Revelation 1:5

He has made us a kingdom of priests for God his Father.

All glory and power to him forever and ever.

Amen.

In 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9, the Bible says, You are not like that, for you are a chosen people.

1 Peter 2:9

You are a royal priest, a holy nation, God's very own possession.

As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

And you might be looking at that going, I thought you said bridge builders.

I don't see bridge builders in either of those verses, but it's funny because in both verses is the word priest.

And that's a word that religion has sort of stolen and dragged through the mud.

And so we hear the word priest and we don't go, yay.

We kind of go, ugh, I don't know.

Who wants to be a priest?

Like I'm I'm a pastor.

That's my role.

Okay, at his hands, we don't have titles.

So please don't ever call me Pastor Justin.

I'm just Justin.

Please don't call me Pastor Justin.

It's my role, but it's not my title.

I'm just a person.

Right?

There's these words that religion has taken, and it's just sort of, it's robbed, it's robbed us of the meaning behind it.

The word priest in the day of Jesus in that time literally translated, word-for-word translation.

The word translates bridge builder.

The idea being that a priest is someone whose life is like a bridge that leads people to God.

That's what it was supposed to mean to be a priest.

The problem is when religion got involved, religion built toll booths on the bridge, and the priests became the ones manning the toll booths.

Charging people money to enter or keeping people out.

And when it comes to Jesus, there are no toll booths.

See, that that call to be a priest, that's for all of us.

It's not for people that work at a church or in an official ministry.

It's for everybody.

Every single person.

You are called by God to be a priest.

How crazy is that?

In fact, I want you to understand something.

I love what I do.

It's an honor that I get to be here week in, week out, and be part of this place and lead this team.

I love it.

But all of you are way, way, way more in ministry than me.

Because, see, 90% of the people I interact with on a daily basis already love Jesus.

The vast majority of people that I talk to are already either excited about Jesus or at least open.

I see no people tied up in ropes right now, having been drugged here.

And if you are, just call for help.

Someone will help you.

Right?

But see, you you go to you go to work, and you're not surrounded by 90% of people that are excited by Jesus.

You might be surrounded by 90% of people who desperately need him.

You you're on the front line.

And so your life, your life, your your priestly life can be the first step for someone else to come to him.

You get to be a bridge builder.

And I'm not being corny and I'm not being cheesy.

But but that means that if you say yes to the purpose that God has called you into, and it's for all of us, that means that one day, one day in eternity, there will be someone who walks up to you and says, Thank you.

Thank you, because if not for you, I wouldn't know Jesus.

If not for you, I wouldn't know Jesus.

There are gonna be people in heaven that are celebrated so much more than people who work at churches.

Because it doesn't require us quitting our jobs and doing something like this to change the world.

Paul was this great leader of the early church, and he's the probably the greatest missionary that ever lived, and he never quit his day job.

He made tents for a living.

The world was affected for the last 2,000 years by a carpenter and a tent maker.

And I say that this morning because you you might look at your life and you might not feel like you have a great purpose.

Because maybe you believe that your job is your purpose in life, and your job may be really exciting.

It might be something that looks really good on a business card, and that's actually kind of dangerous because you'll be tempted to accept that as your purpose and feel like it's enough, but it won't be.

Or maybe you have a job that's just a job.

And it doesn't wow anyone, it doesn't even wow you.

It's just something you have to do to pay the bills, and you might be you might be downtrodden because you feel like that's all you're living for.

That's your purpose.

No, no, no, that's not your purpose.

You are created for something so much greater.

You're created for an eternal purpose, to be a priest, to be a kingdom builder, a bridge builder.

You're created to be someone whose life makes people see Jesus.

You might be a stay-at-home mom.

And if, by the way, if you're a stay-at-home mom, wow.

Because there will be days that I have to stay at home with all three of my children, and this is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

I I love them, and it's so hard.

So hard.

In fact, to the point where if you're someone that stays at home with kids, and you've probably experienced this, if someone ever comes home, someone maybe that's worked for the day at a job and they ask the question, what'd you do all day?

It's like, punch them.

Punch them right in the face, and Jesus will forgive you.

What did you do all day?

Being a mom is fantastic.

You know, raising children, that's a purpose worth living for for sure.

But if if maybe you're a mom and you you struggle sometimes with some guilt because even though you know what you do is so important, it sometimes doesn't feel like enough.

That's okay.

Because you are made for more than that.

You're not you're not just a mom or just a dad or just a husband or just a wife or a son or a daughter or a boss or an employee or whatever.

You are a priest called by God Himself to build his kingdom.

God has invited you into this amazing purpose that will change the world.

Because, guys, let's be honest, we live in a world that needs changing.

And Jesus can do it.

I can't do it, you can't do it.

But Jesus can do it, and all he asks of us is to be the people who leave this place and love people and pray for people and support people and serve people in such a way that it makes those people take notice and it makes them come with us when we go to Jesus.

That's what changes the world, and we're all called to be part of it.

And so I don't know about you, but I don't want to waste a year pursuing a puny purpose for my life.

I don't want at the end of this year my bank account to be bigger and my waistline to be smaller, and for a second believe that that would make 2017 worth it, because it wouldn't.

The only thing that's gonna make this year a year worth living is accepting the invitation that Jesus gives to all of us into his purpose and making that ours.

Is anyone here willing to stand up and say, I will build a bridge this year?

I'll be a bridge builder.

Because that's what we're called to.

That's for every single one of us.