The Grind - Week 2 (Back 2 School Sunday)

We're in our series, The Grind. Everybody's getting back into

routine now, back to the same old grind and all

of those things. And last week we talked about finding

those moments that are just full of joy and full

of energy. And we talked about those things. But today,

I want to kind of give you a blueprint where

that becomes more real. An easier way for those things

to be present in our lives. You know, there's this

philosophy that the Okinawans use. And they try to find

purpose in... in all the simple things of life. They

try to find meaning in every single thing. And it's

in a cup of coffee and it's in a walk

to work. And they try to find their meaning in

those things because sometimes their occupations and their job... Let

me just ask you, how many of you, you know,

your job is not your favorite thing? I'm sorry, my

job is my favorite thing. That's a big thing. And

sometimes the only reason we like what we do is

because the check clears at the end of the week. Amen?

But they have this ideology that we should find meaning.

And I think they have it inverted. I think that

when our life has purpose, all of those other things

are just a little bit sweeter. So today I want

to talk to you about living with purpose. For the

purpose of never finding myself in the grind. Psalm chapter 37.

Psalms 37 · chapter mention

Psalm chapter 37. Starting in verse 3, it says, Trust

Psalms 37 · chapter mention

in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land

and feed on his faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the

Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in him.

He shall bring it to pass. Lord, your word. We

love it. It's the only change agent on the face

of the planet. And I pray that today you use

it to change us. The very fabric of our being changes, Lord.

In Jesus' name. You know, when we delight ourselves in

the Lord, when we truly find ourselves living in him,

he gives us.

The desires of our heart.

And the very American way to read that is that

He gives us everything we want. But that's not actually

what that scripture says. It says that God takes His desires,

He puts them in our heart, and He makes them

our desires. So in other words, He gives us love

for the things He wants us to accomplish. And when

we love the things that we do, it brings a

whole different perspective in the operation of those things. If

I hated pastoring, I would be even worse at it

than I already am. If I woke up every day

and I'd be like, oh man, Chase. Chase texted me.

I got to read a text message from Chase. That

would be a terrible life to live. But when we

allow the Lord... to put those desires in our heart

and transform us and begin to love the things that

we love, then it gives us a whole different perspective

on things. So the first part of purpose is loving

what we do, is delighting ourselves, is making the... Listen,

making the Lord everything we are. Do you realize it

is not scriptural for you to have a secular part

of your life? But everything that you are should point

and lean into Jesus.

Everything.

Every component and every aspect is wrapped up in the Lord. Well,

I just like... Right? Right? Here's the thing. If you say,

I just need to carve a little something for myself,

you're not truly delighting in the Lord because he is

your identity. He is your belonging. He is your energy.

He is your joy. He is your vision. He is

your compulsion. He is all of those things living on

the inside and delighting ourselves mean that we don't try

to find something separate or outside or look and say,

this belongs to me and those things belong to the Lord.

We are an expression of him And you're a unique

individual expression of him. Together, we are the body of Christ.

Some of you are pinky toes. Amen.

Some are pinky fingers.

Some people are thumbs. Some people are noses. Some people

are mouths. Some people... Listen. Listen.

We all belong to the.

Body and we all have a unique expression and function.

And he will give you the love for your expression

and function. Now jump over to 1 Peter chapter 4.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

1 Peter chapter 4, starting in verse 9. 1 Peter 4, 9.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

It said, be hospitable to one another without grump. That's

not why I sent y'all there, but underline that.

Come on now.

Be hospitable to.

One another without grumbling.

As each one has received a gift, minister it to

one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.

If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the

ability which God supplies, that in all things God may

be glorified through Christ Jesus, to whom belong the glory

and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. He says, I

have gifted you to do something. I have given you talents,

those unique expressions that live out through our giftings.

So the next part of purpose is our gifting.

Our gift. Those things that we do. Those actions that

spill out of us. Every single person here has giftings

and we struggle with it and the enemy causes you

to struggle with it. He wants you to think you're worthless.

He wants you to think you're inadequate. He wants you

to think that you don't have things put together. He

wants you to think you're a failure. He wants you

to think you don't make a difference. Let's just do

a show of hands. Transparency again. We'll just leave that

laying down there. It fell in the hole. Oh, no,

it didn't.

It jumped over the hole.

Thank you.

He will speak to you.

Show of hands. How many of you, you have just,

I mean, I don't know how to say it, worked

your tail off on a project or all week long

and you get to the end of it and you

think to yourself, you know what? It didn't really matter

other than I got a paycheck. You feel like, you know,

I'm not really making a difference. I'm not really.

That's the enemy wanting to convince you that what you

do is insignificant, but who you are is significant. So

that means that what you do is significant and your giftedness,

the things that you're good at are from God and

none of them are wasted. Now listen, I think that

because I'm drawing, you guys are not saying amen at

the rate that you normally do. Just because I'm holding

a marker doesn't mean you keep your mouth closed. Amen.

James chapter 1. James chapter 1 verse 27. Amen. James

James 1 · chapter mention James 1:27 James 1:27

chapter 1 verse 27. Pure and undefiled religion before God

and the Father is this. To visit orphans and widows

in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

True and undefiled religion is finding where there's a need

and meeting the need. You know, so many times in Scripture,

we see that people complain to the apostles because needs

are not being met. Well, what about this? And what

about that? And their answer is, okay, go do it.

Jesus' philosophy too. We talked about it last week, right?

We talked about the multitudinal miracle.

They said, oh, these people are hungry.

Jesus said, go feed them. There are needs in the world.

There are things that the world needs. And you may

be specifically gifted to see the need that nobody else sees.

And God is sending you to do it. So your

giftedness also plays into the scenario, right? Your giftedness also

is part of your purpose and as well as what

the world needs.

Is part of your purpose.

And where these things overlap are.

Where the grind happens.

If we're not overlapping all three of these, we find

ourselves in friction points where we just don't feel fulfilled

and it's where work feels like work.

See, at the intersection of... Oh, I'm sorry.

I know y'all are going to... Y'all are going to say, oh,

he didn't write on there, so I don't understand. Need.

What the world needs. You could just take a picture

of it if you wanted to, or wait, and I

will post an image somewhere of this, okay? So where

love and your giftedness, where love and giftedness intersect is

your passion. It's those things that you're passionate about. Your

giftedness and what you love. That area is where your

passion lies. And the fear, the thing that can go

wrong in the area where we're passionate, is it's very

easy for vanity to take hold in the things that

we love and the things that we're good at. that

we start thinking that we're just a little bit better

than what God wanted us to be at those things. Amen?

Because we have a love for it and we have

a giftedness for it and we begin to operate in

those things and arrogance comes and conceitedness comes and vanity comes.

Do you know that a lot of people struggle with vanity?

Now either some of that just hit home somewhere You

think you're immune to it. Because after all, I mean,

we've been taught that vanity means that I'm looking in

the mirror and fixing my hair all the time, right?

But vanity is a condition of the heart where I

think I'm above. It's a condition of the heart where

I feel like I'm above. I just feel like I

can do it all a little bit better. I feel

like that I'm... that I'm needed in the room for

it to work. Listen, if you truly want to be

a leader, there is one thing you need to mark

down and write down right now in your life is

that you should never be the smartest person in the room.

If you want to be a great leader, never be

the smartest person in the room. I looked around, I

looked at the room, and that's why we had to

bring Davis in. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, I'm

just kidding, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. Quite often

when we talk about things, And I bring things up.

It's because I don't have the answer. And I know

that there is an anointing that can speak into those

things that are far above my ability to dream and

my ability to have ideas. And that's why I surround

myself with people I do because they have unique insight

into areas and they keep humility at a place in

my heart where it's healthy because I know that I

may have a passion for it. And I don't want

my passion to turn into something negative that the enemy uses. Amen?

We'll just keep going through here.

This Venn diagram is the hardest thing to draw. Understand

that the scale of these overlaps have nothing to do

with it. It's just the limitations to my drawing. Right here. Here.

I don't have time, I don't have room to draw

in there. But where your passion or what you're good

at and what the world needs, where those things intersect

is contribution.

That's all it is, it's contribution.

What I'm good... That says contribution. Contribution. It looks like something,

but it says contribution. In my mind, that says contribution.

It's where.

You know what I said about y'all just a little

while ago? I'm about to take that back. I'm about

to take that back. Contribution is where we really truly

are gifted. We're good at it and there's a need

for it.

And if we're.

Just good at it and there's a need for it,

but there's no love for it anywhere, it's just rote,

empty contribution. And when we live and we stop and

the overlap of our life and we live in this overlap,

the result of that is weariness. Weariness. We grow weary

when all we're doing is making a contribution. We find

ourselves bankrupt because there's nothing making.

A deposit in our life.

Contribution is only giving away and we're never getting anything back.

And this is the place when we live in this place,

we burn out. When you live in this place, you

look at the world and you're like, oh my gosh,

I don't think that I... Everything is a waste of time.

Everything is just draining. If when you get home, you're

so exhausted.

Listen to me.

I want to speak it right into your life. If

every time you get home, you're so exhausted that you

can't even have input with your family, you can't laugh

with your children, you can't do those things, you are

probably heavily living your life In this overlap of contribution.

And you find yourself.

Says weary.

Weary. Living constantly in the place of fatigue. Not because

you're actually putting your hand to the plow, but because

the idea of putting your hand to the plow does

nothing but drain you. That's a dangerous place to live.

And then, if you're over here in this overlap, where

love and need collide, in this overlap of our lives

where we love it and there's a need for it,

This is where we find mission. We love it and

there's a need for it. And when we write this word,

that sounds really spiritual, doesn't it? Mission is, I mean,

it just sounds just so, so exciting. But the truth is,

if we live in this overlap, we often find ourselves

living in mediocrity. Because there's a need for it. We

love it, but we're not good at it. But because

there's a need for it, there is a difference.

Come on, somebody.

There is a difference being made because there's a need

for it. And I do it, but I'm only mediocre

at it. I'm not excellent at it. I'm not great

at it. This is a place where I struggle. Mediocrity.

I'm going to Abbreviate that med. That says mediocrity.

This is the area that I struggle with the most.

This is the area where I struggle the most. Your

pastor struggles right here because I feel like I see

need and I just allow myself to start meeting. And

because there's a difference being made, I just simply say,

that's good enough. It's good enough. We're making a difference.

You know, it's easy to think that, oh man, we're

feeding over 200 people a month.

Feeding over 200 people a month. We're making a difference.

Love and need. But do you know there are more

than 200 people that are hungry in our area? Yeah. Amen?

You know, I struggle with this because I love pastoring.

And there's a need for it. And it's easy for

me to look and see and say, oh man, church

is growing. People are here. Things are happening. People are

getting saved. People are being baptized. Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay.

If you draw a five-mile circle....

Five mile circle with our church in the center point.

There are over 64,000 lost people according to statistics. 64,000

people who.

Don't know Jesus that live with him.

Five miles of our building. Hey, we have good church.

I didn't expect y'all to shout as loud during this part.

It's okay.

Oh, but when we get one man music and altar

The coffee. Oh, we just love each other.

64,000 people dying and going to hell. Mediocrity is not

an option. Feeding 200 people, not an option. And the

reason I'm preaching the hardest about this is because this

is where I live. This is the area I struggle with.

Maybe yours is one of these other areas. I don't

ever get tired. I don't struggle with that. My wife

will tell you from the time I wake up, which

is early, to the time I go to sleep, which

is late, I'm working on something.

To try to make the world a better place.

To try to figure out just another way to make

a dollar so I can help more people. I don't

struggle there. Maybe you do. Maybe that's where you want

me to preach the most, but I can't because it's not.

I can preach my struggle better than I can preach

your struggle. Here's the reality. When we talk about our church,

whatever the area of my struggle is, is probably going

to be the area of our struggle of our church too.

It's probably going to be the limiting factor of our church.

And if that's my limiting factor, you guys need to

press me and help me and understand. And when I

start talking about getting better at this and getting better

at that, that it's a rallying cry. You get behind

it because there's more. We're built for more. You as

an individual are built for more. Our church is built

for more. We are all built for more. But here's

the incredible place. Here's the place where the grind disappears.

Every one of these overlaps, the grind exists. But right here,

right here, we're all three of them. We're our love,

our giftedness, and the need for Where those things.

Overlap, that's purpose.

That's purpose.

That's where everything comes together.

And we don't grow weary because it's empowered by what

we love. And we're good at it. Come on now.

And there's a need for it.

Contribution doesn't make us grow weary because it's not contribution.

Because when the love and the passion is part of it,

they balance each other out and it becomes a propulsion.

We're pushed by it. Purpose is not this mystical thing

that we ask God for and He shows us purpose.

It's us seeing the areas of our life And aligning

the areas of our life so that the center point

of our life is the overlapping of those things. What

do you love? Don't say it out loud. What do

you love? What are the things you love? What are

the things you love? And listen to me, if you're

here and you say, I don't love anything, we're going

to make an altar call in just a moment. And

you need to come. You need to come because there

is some kind of root that has grabbed your life.

It's the root of bitterness. It's the root of unforgiveness.

It's the root of something that's growing in your life

that's blocking love because we all have something that we love.

What are you gifted to do? What are you gifted at?

What are you good at?

Oh, I'm good at talking on the phone.

Good. Good. What do you love? Oh, I... I love.

I just.

I don't know why, Pastor. I love old people. I

love old people. I just love them, man. I just...

I love the way they smell. I love the way

they walk. I love... I love everything. I love talking

on the phone. You know where a good overlap is

to find out who all of our elderly people are

and just call on them every week and check on

them and tell them you look. You know what? What's

the reality is, is a lot of elderly people feel

lonely and isolated. They feel lonely.

They feel isolated.

They don't really, they can't get out and do the

things that they want to do the way they used

to do them. Come on now. Listen, I'm not even

elderly and there's things that I can't get out and

do the way I used to do them. I used

to find great camaraderie on the softball field. Laughing and

running and yelling and fighting. Come on now. Transparency, right?

I can't do that anymore.

I retired, came out of retirement, lasted a half.

An inning, tore my hamstrings. Maybe if there's a need.

And people feel lonely and isolated, and you're good at it,

talking on the phone, and you love.

Old people.

First of all, probably if you describe them as old people,

that might not actually be love. Probably in the middle

of that is where you find purpose. If you love

feeding people, there's a lot of hungry people in the world.

And if I learn how to do it, there's purpose there.

Some of you are sitting here today waiting for God

to show you what you're good at or what He

wants for you to do. And He's already showed you.

You just don't live in the overlap. You just don't

live where those things collide. Well, I don't know where

they collide. Get a piece of paper and write it

all down. Get a piece of paper. The most spiritual

thing I'll ever teach you, write it down. Write it

down and look at it and see where those things

overlap and jump in the middle of it because your

purpose is right around there somewhere. And man, when you

find purpose, that John chapter 10 verse 10 kind of life,

John 10:10

it is exhilarating. Exhilarating. You wake up ready to go

in the morning. You don't want to go to sleep

at night because you're still ready to go. Because you

know there's a need. You're learning how to do it better.

And you just love it.

It's purpose. Well, you guys can come and get ready.

In James chapter, I'm sorry, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8.

Ephesians 2:8

It says, for by grace you've been saved through faith.

And that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God.

He says, you've been saved by grace. You have been

saved just simply because Jesus' entire existence is to lean

in towards humanity. The momentum of the sun is always

moving towards people.

He's up on the balls of his feet, ready to

reach and catch the moment we stumble and fall.

His whole existence is leaning in towards humanity. Verse 9,

not of works, lest anyone should boast. You can never

be good enough to get to heaven. Let me say

that again. Some of y'all need to be set free

from that. You can never be good enough to get

to heaven. Never. Can't do it. But then he goes

on and in verse 10 he says, for we are

his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We

can never be good enough to get to heaven, but

when we are found, when Jesus finds us and He

saves us and He expresses His grace through us, He

awakens us to live with purpose so that we are

making a difference in the world around us. Grace. Grace

is the launch pad of purpose, not the excuse for

doing nothing. A lot of times we look around and

we say, hey, you know what? I know I'm not

doing my best, but the Lord understands. He understands. No,

He doesn't. He actually doesn't. He doesn't understand.

Does He still love us?

Yes. But He doesn't understand why we're not compelled to

do what He's given us purpose to do. Because what

He's given us purpose to do is fulfilling.

Fulfilling.

And energizing. And joyful. And all of those things that

we're chasing in our lives. John chapter 10 verse 10.

John 10:10

Life and life more abundant. And maybe you're here and

you've never had an encounter with Jesus before. You're wandering

around and nothing feels fulfilling to you. Nothing feels like purpose.

Here's the thing. You haven't yet come into relationship with

the person that shows you purpose yet. If you're here

and you've never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins,

to be the Lord of your life, purpose begins right

there with that decision. So I want you to be

a favor. Every head bowed, every eye closed. If you're

here today, you feel like you're wandering. But you don't.

You don't have purpose in your life. You want the

Lord to bring revelation to you. Just lift your hand

and say, that's me, Pastor. I want clarity. I want

to see the target. I want to chase after it.

I want to I want that. I want to live

in the overlap. I want to live in that place.

Just lift your hand up and put it right back

down and say, that's me, Pastor. I want purpose. Purpose. Purpose. Amen.

Now if you're here today and you've never asked Jesus

to be your Lord, never asked Him to forgive you

of your sins, but in this moment something's tugging you,

You know that that's the logical decision in this moment.

Just lift your hand up and say, that's me, Pastor.

Pray for me.

I want to give my life to Jesus today. Wait

just a moment. Just put it up and put it

right back down. Somebody here, you've been playing that game

for a long time and you feel exhausted because of

it because you have lived it for so long that

now you're embarrassed for people to know that it wasn't

real this whole time. But here's the reality. People are

going to love you anyway. If that's you, just slip

your hand up and put it right back down. Pastor,

pray for me. I want to give my life to

Jesus today. Amen. Everybody stand with me all over the building. Father,

help all of us find the overlap. Help us all

experience you in a greater, deeper way. Help us surround

ourselves with people Help us walk in the freedom you've

showed us. Let us discover who you've created us to

uniquely be so that we can live with purpose. Lord,

have your way in our lives in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's worship together.