What’s Next – Born for This

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason and Liz Burns in Access Church in Lakeland and Bartow, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Today we're in part three of a four-part teaching series we've been doing.

The series is called What's Next?

And in this series, we're saying this that every person, every believer has the next step closer to Jesus.

In the book of Psalm, chapter 16, David called it the path of life.

Psalms 16 · chapter mention

From literally the beginning of the Bible all the way to the end, there are there is a spiritual journey that God wants every one of us to take.

And here's the crazy thing we've built our whole church around this, and it works.

It helps people grow closer to God and to experience Him in a different kind of way.

Today we're in part three of it.

To get us started, this last few weeks have been kind of weird in my house.

Honestly, they've been strange because this coming Saturday, my oldest son Joey, graduates from high school.

That makes no sense to me whatsoever.

I'm gonna be honest, I still feel like I'm just a few weeks removed from graduating high school at what now feels like the end of the Civil War, but whatever, I feel like it.

And so I've been looking through pictures of Joey and just been all an emotional wreck the last few weeks.

And uh something funny I stumbled across this week was about eight or nine years ago, we signed up Joey for tryouts for a YMCA basketball league.

And he was excited about it.

Up till this point, Joey had only ever played sports in a sports league called encouraging sports.

And if you don't know what that is, the whole heart of it is to get kids to play, but it's to encourage them.

It's not to be competitive or to keep score.

And I think that's what's wrong with our country, everybody.

I really do.

You know who keeps score?

The kids.

The kids keep score.

And so, anyways, Joey was in this league and he wanted to advance to a different league.

And I'll be honest with you, this league is a it's more advanced.

The kids were definitely more advanced.

And Joey, um, how do I say this kindly?

He had hit the genetic jackpot in terms of good looks, good family, good attitude.

He's the best kid ever.

But he didn't quite hit the genetic lottery in terms of height or basketball ability.

So I was real nervous for the tryouts.

So we get there, there's lots of kids lined up, and here's what they were gonna do.

The coaches gathered everyone, put them in a line, and said, You're gonna come to this microphone, say your name, tell us how old you are, and then we're gonna do a drill.

The drill is you gotta dribble down the court, you gotta make a layup, get your own rebound, dribble back down the court, and hit a jump shot.

And then we will, if you're good enough, we will put you on a team.

I am freaking out inside in this moment.

My son, like all these kids go, and all man, so many of them are so good.

Many of them are so much better than Joey.

Some of them should take up accounting, but most of them were really, really good in this moment.

And then it's Joey's turn.

And I'll be honest, I'm coming out of my skin waiting for him to get there.

And he gets to the microphone and they say, What's your name?

He says, I'm Joey Burns.

They said, How old are you?

He said, I'm eight years old.

And then they said, Joey, are you ready for this?

And I don't know where this came from, but all this courage came out of Joey, and he screamed these five words.

I was born for this.

Now, all of my nerves are on like methamphetamines in this moment.

Like I am coming unglued in this moment.

And I'm like, oh God, please let him make this shot, you know?

And they throw him the ball and he catches it clean.

Like he doesn't even bobble it.

I'm like, okay.

And then he starts dribbling, and it was as if like the spirit of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant enveloped my son.

He caught it, he dribbled clean.

At one point, he put the ball through his legs, and I was like, What's going on?

And he dribbles up and he makes his layup, and I'm like, okay, don't get too hype, okay.

And he catches his rebound, he dribbles back down the court, he stops and he shoots a jump shot.

Nothing but the bottom of the net.

And I was like, that's my boy.

That's my son.

Couldn't believe it in this moment.

And I don't know where those five words, I was born for this, came from, but here's what I do know.

That's one of the proudest moments of my life as a dad.

I'm gonna be honest.

If I can't teach my kids anything else, I'm gonna teach them how to talk trash and back it up.

Any dad's proud of that, you know?

That's a big deal.

Here's the thought I had though.

I wonder how many of us we wake up every day and we just eke out an existence.

We we go to the job we don't love, we come back home to a life we don't love, and every single day just feels like trying to bicycle through mud.

It's like we're getting there, but it's not fun.

Today I want to talk about this idea.

What if every day you woke up and the first thought you had when your feet hit the floor is, I was born for this.

Every single day at my job and my family and my life with my friends, I was born for this.

I want you to know that that's God's intention for you.

In fact, it's one of the steps God has on the spiritual journey for you.

Here it is in the book of Ephesians, chapter one.

You by the way, you can find this journey all the way from Exodus chapter six all the way through revelation.

Paul says in Ephesians 1, he says, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may, number one, know him better.

God wants us to know him.

That's step one in the spiritual journey.

Number two, he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.

We talked about this last week.

Your heart doesn't have physical eyes, but everything you experience in this life is filtered through the condition of your heart.

All of your friendships, all of your relationships, every time you try something new, it's gonna be filtered through what's happened in your past.

So if you have some hurt or pain or hangups in your past, which talks about finding freedom from that last Sunday.

Then it goes on, he says, in order that you may, number three, know the hope to which he has called you.

And when you have a purpose, you have a hope.

When you have something with your life that matters, you have a hope.

And he says, number four, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.

God wants to set you in a spiritual family where you use your giftings and talents to make a difference in the lives of other people.

So our whole church, for 18 years now, we've built it around these four principles from God.

Here's how we say it we want you to know God.

We want you to find freedom from your yesterdays, your hangups, your hurts, all of those things that tend to drag you down.

Number three, we want you to discover your purpose so that you can make a difference.

Today, I want to talk about step three.

I want you to discover your purpose.

So many people, Christians and non-Christians, believers and unbelievers, so many people walk through this life completely unaware of the purpose that God has for them.

A study was literally done this year by Gallup polls, and it said this only 44% of American people feel fulfilled in their personal lives right now.

It's wild.

And then when it comes to work, only 21% of those people feel fulfilled at work.

Like, why is this?

And what would it look like if we, the church, were the kind of people who had this holy sense of confidence that God has wired us with giftings and talents, we discover them and then we put them to work so that we can live the kind of life he's called us to live.

Today, I want to take you through this third step, this idea of discovering your purpose, so you can know what it was created for, so you can use it to change the world.

To get us going today, Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

One of my favorite sets of verses in scripture, Paul says this.

He says, For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith.

And this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

And then I love this next part.

He says, For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Let me walk you through this, because this is one of the most poignant sets of verses in Scripture.

Verse 8, he says this.

Now, grace is a word that's kind of a churchy word.

It's not a word that we use in all of our normal, every single day conversations.

Sometimes you maybe grew up in a family that before a meal you would pray, you would say, Grace.

For others of us, um, grace is the only time we hear it is negative.

It's when a politician or a celebrity has some sort of a moral falling out or a moral scandal, we say they fell from grace.

But what what is grace?

Well, Paul says it's by grace that you've been saved through faith.

Here's the definition of grace.

Grace is God's power in you to do what you can't do on your own.

Let me tease it out for you.

You can't save you.

You can't fix the condition of sin that clouds out your heart.

You can't, but the grace of God, it's his power to do in you what you can't do on your own.

Here's another example of grace.

Have you ever walked through a situation or a season that felt so insurmountable that you didn't think you could get through it?

Have you ever had to bury someone you love?

Have you ever had a dream die?

Have you had a marriage fall apart?

Have you have you had something happen in your life and you thought, I can never get through this on my own, but somehow you do?

It is the grace of God giving you the power to do what you can't do on your own.

So Paul says, it's by grace that you're saved through faith.

Then he says, it's not by works, so that no one can boast.

What does this mean?

It means that if you could do something to save yourself, then you would try to take the credit for it.

The funny thing is, so many Christians exhaust themselves by doing good stuff, but the reason they're doing it is so that they can try to somehow earn something that was actually given as a gift from God.

You cannot earn that which has been given.

So here's what you need to understand grace is opposed to earning, but not to effort.

What does it mean?

The grace of God means you can't earn, you can't earn your salvation.

But once God has saved you, it's not opposed to effort.

It means you need to do something.

Here's the easier way to understand it.

We are not saved by the good works we do, but we are saved for works.

God saves us, and it's not by our efforts, but once he has saved us, then we gotta figure out our giftings, our talents, and our purpose so that we can put it to work.

And then this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, Ephesians 2, chapter 10.

Paul wraps up this moment with this beautiful soliloquy.

He says, For we are God's handiwork.

Other translations of your Bible might say craftsmanship, or one translation says masterpiece.

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Here's what this means: it means before the world was even created, God knew that the world would need you right now.

Can I talk to all the parents in the room for just a second?

Um you ever watch the news and think, how how how much worse could the world get?

Like, how is it possible that the world could even get darker than it is right now?

Have you ever had this thought?

I feel bad for my children inheriting this dark place.

If I give you a word of courage, a word from God, God knew.

He knew that the world would need you right now in the same way God knew that the next generation of the world would need your children right now.

Quick other side note this is the reason I am so personally pro-life, because every life has purpose and potential to it.

So to take a life is not a political statement, it's a theological and a spiritual statement.

And literally the reason it matters so much, and the reason we should be so pro-life, is every life matters to God because every life has the potential to change the world.

Can I get an amen on that from anybody?

It's a big deal.

So Paul says we are God's handiwork.

The Greek word here for this word handiwork is a fun word.

It's the word poema.

Poema literally means poetry.

It's we are his poetry.

It's the highest, the pinnacle of his creation.

And here's a fun little uh tidbit to it.

It's not just poetry, it's it's the highest form.

It's got a divine designation to it.

Paul says, you are the pinnacle of God's creation.

You are better than any art piece ever created, you're better than any sculpture ever sculpted, you are better than any song ever written, you are better than the 1990s Dallas Cowboys that ran off three Super Bowls in four years.

You are God's best work.

To help you understand this, in the 1990s, there was this awesome moment.

This is, I was about 10 years old when this happened, and I love this so much.

Up until 1992 in the Olympics, every year America would send a basketball team full of college players.

And we were good and we would often get a medal, but we're America, everybody.

Like we're winners.

That's what we do.

We win.

And so in the 1990s, someone came up with this idea that we shouldn't send college athletes.

No, no, we should send the best of the best.

I don't know if you're a basketball fan, but to me, what you're gonna see is one of the greatest teams ever assembled.

This was the Avengers before the Avengers, everybody.

This is awesome.

Look at this team.

I'm gonna do this from memory, everybody.

His Ernest Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Chris Mullen, Clyde Drexler, John Stockton, Scottie Pippen, Christian Leitner.

Questionable choice.

They could have had Shaq, everybody.

Patrick Ewing, David the Admiral Robinson, Carl the Mailman Malone, Sir Charles Barclay did it from memory because this is the best team ever.

So good.

Okay.

I want you to see this.

This was a fun era in basketball.

Look at this next picture.

How fun is this?

Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, just the best of the best.

And they assembled this team of the greatest ever.

And do you remember what they called it?

They called it the dream team.

Come on, this was fun.

And it was a dream to watch them play, but I want you to see something.

The word that matters here is the word team.

Why?

Because no matter how good they were as individuals, when they came together, they were unstoppable.

This team won every game by an average of 43.8 points per game.

If they didn't even play the fourth quarter, they would have won every single game they played.

Why?

Because we're America and we roll over everybody.

That's what we do.

Then we back up and roll over them again.

That's what we do, right?

I want you to see this.

Best team ever assembled, and the greatest player ever, Michael Jordan, was on the team.

And if we took Michael Jordan, the greatest to ever do it, and we lined him up by himself against any country's starting five, no matter how good he is, he would always lose to the other team.

Why?

Because no matter how good you are, no matter how much of a rock star you are in your own world, this principle is always true.

That we is always greater than me.

That we collectively can do so much more than me can ever do on my own.

We is always better than me.

When it comes to the things of God, you need to understand that God hardwired into you giftings and talents and abilities.

And you need to understand that when you discover what those are, they're tied to your purpose.

And when you discover your purpose and you put it to use with other people who've discovered theirs, we collectively can change the world.

Now let me say it to you like this.

At Access, we call every single person who serves in our church.

They're a part of a team.

I think it's the greatest team ever.

It's a team that we call Team Access.

And if you serve in any capacity, if you're greeting people as they come in the front doors, if you're loving on children in the nursery, if you're teaching kids the Bible, teaching them about Jesus and Access kids, if you're leading an access group for our students, if you're if you're leading worship, if you're greeting people, if you're if you're helping people find a seat, if you're leading one of our access groups, if you're preaching, every person who serves is on the team, and we together are doing something that has an eternal difference.

It matters forever.

Now, some people come and they're like, well, like I see what you're doing, and that's cool, but like I don't really want that.

I don't, that's not really for me.

And people come up with the silliest excuses, in my opinion, ever to not serve.

Let me show you three of my favorites, okay?

Some people look around and they say, Oh, I don't think we have any needs around here.

This is silly to me.

Um, in the last seven months, we've launched two locations of our church, sent out hundreds of people to the locations, and at every single location, no matter how good things look, there's always room for you.

Why?

Because we're better when we are in this together.

We work really hard so it doesn't look like there's needs, but the truth is there's always opportunities for you to put your giftings and talents to work.

Here's another reason some people don't serve.

It's you did it before and you hated it.

I talked to a person one time who said, in my church growing up, if you had a kid, they made you serve in the children's ministry the whole time.

And look, come on, let's have a moment.

Um, anybody like your own kids, but you'll be honest, you don't really like anybody else's kids at all.

Okay.

I think serving with kids is actually the greatest honor in a church, but there's some people who it's just not for them.

Can I tell you something?

Any place you serve might be an awesome fit for you, or it might not be a fit at all.

Here's what I want you to know.

We want you to find your perfect spot, your sweet spot, and serve there.

Why?

Because when you put your giftings and talents and connect it to your passions, you become so attractive to everyone around you.

You did it and hated it, no problem.

Let us help you find a place you love.

Here's a third excuse people make.

You don't see yourself the way God sees you.

And this is a big one.

Because there's a lot of people who come to church and show up to church, but they have no idea how God actually sees them.

They disqualify themselves from serving in ministry, they disqualify themselves from being a blessing in the lives of other people.

And I just want to say this to you that the way God sees you is entirely different than how you see you.

In a few weeks, we're starting a series on the book of Ephesians.

It's called Imposter Syndrome.

And we're gonna go line by line through the book of Ephesians, but the whole book of Ephesians is God saying, I see in you something different than you see in yourself.

Who does God see you as?

A child of God.

He sees you as someone who has unique giftings and talents that he wants to deploy for his service.

And I want you to see this.

He sees you one other way that you need to see yourself as.

If I gave you three reasons or excuses that people have for not serving, let me give you three things that God sees for you.

Number one is this every Christian is a minister.

What?

What does it mean?

It means, according to God's word, if you're a follower of Jesus, ready for this?

You are a pastor, a minister of the good news of Jesus to the world around you.

Look, look what it says in the book of 1 Peter, and I love this.

He says, but you, all of you, are a chosen people, a royal priesthood.

Come on, ain't no hood like the priesthood, everybody.

You're a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

What does this verse mean?

It means that we should have given you a business card today on the way in, that you would write your name on it, and underneath it is the word minister.

Why?

Because according to scripture, that's how God sees you.

What does it mean for us, the pastors, the people who are paid to lead the church?

It means that according to scripture, our actual assignment is not even to do ministry, it's to equip you to do ministry.

Our job is to help you discover your talents, you discover your abilities, so that you can discover your purpose, so that you can use it in a way that changes the world.

Number one, you're a minister.

Number two, I want you to see this.

Everything we do, every task is important.

It's important.

Here's what we tend to do we tend to minimize the stuff we do.

Here's a word that as your pastor, I'm begging you to work out of your vocabulary.

Ready?

Just.

Just.

I just serve in the parking lot.

I just greet people when they come in.

I just serve in the nursery.

Look at me.

No, you don't.

You are uniquely called by God and placed by God in a way that is serving together to change lives.

I got some good news for you.

Every single Sunday for like the whole history of our church, we've had people pray to make the decision to follow Jesus.

If you serve in the parking lot, if you serve with kids, if you serve greeting people, if you serve on the worship team, if you serve by leading a small group, your fingerprints are on that.

What does it mean?

Okay, let me give you a practical example.

People statistically decide in the first seven minutes of trying a church for the first time whether or not they'll even come back.

You don't just serve in the parking lot.

You offer a hug or a handshake or a high five to someone and a smile to help them know that this is a place where they're gonna feel welcome and love, that this can actually be home.

The last month or two in our Access Kids Children's Ministry, we have had a lot of really, really sad stories, not from church, but kids bringing sad stories to us.

Stories of mom and dad sitting their kids down saying, Hey, we're getting separate apartments, kids who have been abused, kids who are walking through crazy trauma.

And these things are happening every single week.

You don't just work in access kids.

Get that out of your vocabulary.

You're a minister of hope, a minister of the message of Jesus, and you in one moment could literally redirect a child's destiny forever.

It's not just doing something, no, but we're doing something big that matters.

In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul says it like this He says, Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

And he uses this interesting analogy the analogy is of a body.

Well, your body and mine is composed of many different parts.

Each one of them is important.

Let me explain it to you like this.

Like, think about your pinky toe.

It doesn't seem That's important when you don't think about it, but if you've ever stubbed it or broken it, it shuts everything else down.

I want you to think about this.

In the same way, because we are the body of Christ composed of so many different parts, if you are not serving in and operating at your full capacity, it has this way of limiting what the body can do.

Okay.

This is true about the way you serve, this is true about the way that you give.

This is true about everything that we do together.

If you're not operating at full capacity, it limits what we are able to do as a church and it matters.

Number three is this every person is unique and needed.

Let me say this to someone in the room.

Some of you have disqualified yourself from serving God because you feel quirky.

You feel like there's something weird about you that God made you and He just gave you something a little weird or a little different.

Can I show you something?

The stuff that makes you unique is actually that which qualifies you.

God doesn't need us all to be the same.

He needs all of our wonderful quirks, all of our wonderful things, the unique distinctives of us.

You're unique and you are needed.

In the book of Psalm, David says it like this.

He says, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Your works are wonderful.

I know that full well.

What does it mean?

It means God's design in me reveals his destiny for me.

And so many Christians they disqualify themselves.

And I just want to say to you, that uniqueness is a gift from God.

So as a church, we do something every single month at every location on the first and second Sunday of every month.

We do an event called Next Steps Class.

Why do we do this?

It's not to give you one more thing to do, it's so that you can discover those unique giftings and talents.

It's so that we can work together to deploy them to make a difference that's felt for generations to come.

We want this for you.

We don't want something from you.

This is for you.

If you've never done it, just go to access.tv slash info and sign up and go to the next one.

It won't cost you anything.

It doesn't hurt anything, but you might just leave with a different understanding of how God hardwired you.

And when you connect that to your purpose, everything changes.

One last verse.

In the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul says this.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

He says, God's various gifts are handed out everywhere, but they all originate in God's Spirit.

God's various ministries are carried out everywhere, but they all originate in God's spirit.

God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere, but God Himself is behind it all.

And I want you to see this.

Each person, timeout.

You each person, the person you're sitting beside, each person, everyone here at any of our locations, each person is given something to do that shows who God is.

Okay.

I'm gonna step up on your toes for a second.

If you don't discover your purpose and live it out in your life, you risk the people in your life not seeing and understanding who God is.

It's a big deal.

Each person is giving something to do that shows who God is.

Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.

Pause again.

Every once in a while, when I talk about doing something that seems like it benefits the church, there is this part of me that's like, well, people are gonna resist it because they're gonna think I'm in this for myself.

Can I show you what the Bible says?

It's not about me, it's not about us, it's actually about you.

When you serve, certainly people around you benefit, but everyone does, and that includes you.

He goes on and says, All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit and to all kinds of people.

The variety is wonderful.

Church will always be frustrating to you, and it'll feel like one more thing to do when you don't understand your purpose.

Your life will feel like you're just trying to eke out an existence every single day when you don't know your purpose.

But when you can wake up and know what God created you for.

And when you understand and connect the dots between your purpose and your gifting and your talent, and the ability to serve in a way that's gonna matter not just for now but for eternity, you will wake up with a holy sense of confidence.

Why?

Because you've finally connected to your purpose.

I want you every single day to wake up.

I want your feet to hit the floor, and I want you to leave your house every single day saying, Look, I was born for this.

Like when you go to work, I was born to do this.

When you serve with your family and friends, I was born for this.

When you're a parent, I was born for this.

When it comes to serving a church, I was born for this.

I want you to live out these five words as a mantra or an anthem for your life that you were created by God on purpose and for a purpose.

And when you discover the purpose, it changes everything.

So as a church, there's hundreds of ways we can serve, hundreds of places.

Here's a list of ministries and areas you can get involved.

And let me just say this as clearly as I can.

We don't need something from you.

We don't.

This is for you.

It's a part of God's spiritual journey for everyone.

So here's how I want to end today.

I want to invite you at all of our locations to pull your phone out or write this down and go to it later.

Access.tv slash serve.

Let me give you a quick tidbit.

We don't volunteer.

We serve.

Because serving is doing something that matters that will be felt for eternity.

Access.tv slash serve.

Here's how I want to end today.

I want to challenge you.

If you are not serving, I want you to jump in.

Not for me, for you.

Not for me, but for our church to live at its full capacity.

Not for me, but that we're all parts of the body of Christ.

And if you are not operating at your full capacity, it hampers or limits our ability as a church to do that which God called us to do.

So in a moment, I'm gonna pray for you.

And for those of you who haven't taken this step in your spiritual journey, statistically, it's 87% of Christians never get to this point.

But if you will, everything else in your life will come alive.

Next week I'm preaching on how we do the final step, which is to make a difference.

But let me say this your life will never truly make a difference.

And you will never reach your full potential in God until you discover why God made you.

So would you join us in this journey and let's see what God does.

Would you bow your head and close your eyes at all of our locations?

Let me pray for you.

God, would you give us the courage to push back against what so many of us deal with, which is the sense of consumerism?

Where it's like my life and my relationship with God and all of my relationships are about me.

God, may we really discover why you made us and I know this that our purpose is always connected to others.

God, help us to push back against this world that's all about me and me-centric, and may we live a life that is characterized by serving and giving and leveraging our lives in a way that make a difference for eternity.

God, we love you and we thank you for this.

God, my prayer is that our church will be the kind of church where people's giftings and talents, where their purpose is discovered and then deployed in a way that changes the world forever.

We thank you for it, God.

With your head still bowed and eyes still closed at all of our locations.

Maybe you showed up today and you don't even know if you know God.

You can't discover your purpose and live out your fulfilled calling until you first know Him.

Whether you've never made a decision to follow Jesus or maybe you just feel like you've walked so far away from it.

If this is you and you need to start or restart with Jesus today, would you raise your hand right now at any of our locations?

This moment's for you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Wow, thank you.

If this moment's for you, I want to invite you to pray this with me.

Praying a prayer changes everything when you mean this with your heart.

If this is you, would you pray today?

Say, Jesus, today I give you my life.

Would you save me?

Change me, make my life new from the inside out.

Jesus, we believe you are the Son of God.

We believe you came into this world to give your life in our place.

Because you did that for us, we believe our lives can be made new, changed from the inside out.

So, Jesus, today we make this decision.

From this day forward, we give you our lives, and we choose to follow you and be our Lord and Savior from this day forward.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Come on, church fam, can we celebrate that together, everybody?