Waters Church

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Living on Purpose Part one.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
The title of the message is in Process, In Process.
I want to do this series on Purpose because more
than ever before, I think people are living with a
lack of purpose to their life.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Why am I here? What's the point? And I think
that there's.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
First the cultural question of our age, where we have
more access to more information and more things than ever before.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
We can do amazing things even with a phone.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
You know, you've just got so much potential opportunity.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
But at the same time, there's the what for? What
is this for?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
That is underneath all of that, you know, all that opportunity,
And when I think what we have is a culture
where there's tremendous potential but a minimal amount of purpose
and and as a dangerous place to be because if
you don't know what you're made for. It's like this
phone's like this phone, like this phone can connect me,

(01:05):
it can help me connect, It can do just amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Things for my life.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
But if I think that this phone is good for
hammering nails into wood, I mean this phone's hurting.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, this phone will not last. This phone will break quickly.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
A lot of people have been treating their lives like
a phone that they're using to nail nails into wood,
and they're broken and they're hurt, and they've got the
wounds and their souls and their hearts to tell you.
You can't use your life the way the world and
this culture tells you.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
You've got to use your lives the.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Way the Lord who gave it to you tells you.
You know who knows how to use this phone the best,
The engineer, person who made it, the person who invented
the person who came.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Up with the idea. Well, that's a story with your life.
You know who engineered your life.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
The Lord God Almighty saw you before you were even
in your mother's womb. He called you by his grace.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
He loves you.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
In my Bible tells me Sa one thirty nine that
every day of your life was written in his book
before one of them came to be. That means that
he has a purpose for you. I think that there's
also another reason why I'm interested in doing the series.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Because it is graduation season. Graduates. We're so happy for you.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
High school graduates, college graduates, master's doctorates.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Anybody who attained.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
A graduation of some sort this past.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Spring or this spring, raise your hand, in our house.
Raise your hand? Can we give them a nice hand? Gongradulations,
We love.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
You, Amen, and let me be the first to tell
you you've accomplished nothing. Now life begins, and I think
that God can use what you've got to help the world.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
I hope he will. But just remember you paid for that,
and now the world's gonna make you pay to earn
the way forward. That's how it works.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
And talked about this two weeks ago that life is
like a big college or high school career. You come in,
you're born, You're like a freshman. You don't know anything.
Everybody's pushing you around, shoving you off to other people,
kicking you down the hallway, making funny.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Don't know. You know, you grow, It goes through all
those young years. Then you becomes a sophomore.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
I like to say it's like your late twenties maybe thirties,
you know, sophomore where you start to figure out a
few things, like you got some wisdom underneath you, but
but you're still a sophomore. What's a sophomore meaning Latin
wise fool. That's what you are. You're a wise fool.
And then junior year, you know about forties, fifties.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
That's where I am. I'm a junior. Yeah, we own
this school, that's right. We like income, inequality. Amen, Okay,
we are pro you know, all those kind of things
that you're fighting for as a young person. All right,
So just remember that there's a there's a group.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Coming up after you that will be jealous of what
you got when you get to that point. But anyway,
then the senior year life sixties, seventies, eighties or whatever,
however many years God God.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Gives you, and your plan is to get out of here.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Man, You're done. You're like, ah, just done with it.
I want to move away, play golf all days. That's
the seniors in the house. And here's what I think about.
If life is like that, how much better would it
have been if you were a freshman in high school
or college and a junior would have come around you
and put his arm around you and just said, hey,
I believe in you. You know you got potential. I'm

(04:51):
not gonna kick you around, I'm gonna help you. And
that's what we need from our juniors and seniors in life.
Can I get an amen from all the freshmen and sophomores?
Come on, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And I feel like
I have a responsibility. I'm a junior now, and I
feel like I have.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
A responsibility to invest in the freshman.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
And I think that the third reason why I want
to do this series is because my son, my firstborn son,
graduated high school this past week.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
I'm so proud of him.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
He's graduated as the second person out of my kids,
second child out of high school.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Tepid, clap, tepid, you know, but I'm proud that I
got two down.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
I feel like I graduated. I feel like I graduated.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
I got one more to go and then yes, Lord right,
and something we just told me a back here. You know,
when they graduated high school, that's when the problems begin.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
I'm like, don't tell me that. That's not what I
want here.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
But the other thing about my son and graduate high school,
and you know that he actually did something wonderful this
past week. He preached to the youth ministry in our
Apollo Beach campus this past Thursday. Priest's first message chip
off the old block. I'm so happy you clapp because

(06:10):
one day he will be your pastor.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Amen. Uh God blessed nepotism.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
No, just kidding, but anyway, I you know, it was
a cool thing for me and him to sit down.
I showed him my process of how I write a
message out, how I started the bodyball, how to put
points together and everything, and then I kind of forgot
about it.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
I get busy, you know. And then on.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Thursday afternoon he gives me a call. The phone rings.
This my son Connor. Connor never calls me, so I
picked it up. I said, yes, he goes, what's up.
Connor never asks me what's up? He asks me what's
in your wallet? That's what he does. He's a Capital
one commercial, that's what he is. Anyway, Uh, what's up?

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Dad? I'm like, this is a weird conversation. I said,
not much. How you doing? And I'll never forget two words?
He goes, I'm nervous. And suddenly it came to me, Oh,
that's right. He's preaching tonight. This is his first time.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
And I was thinking about the first time I preached,
and I was his age.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
I was seventeen. I was in the church. It's very small,
thirty people.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
But the pastor gave an opportunity to preach on Sunday
night because Sunday night was when the real Christians showed
up and I couldn't.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Cause any harm anyway.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
And so I remember I prepared like crazy that week,
and I had like nineteen pages of college ruled notes, College.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Ruled baby not wide ruled nineteen pages.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Get up there, and I preached my guts out for
eight minutes.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
I was done. The pastor was like, I guess I'll
go and preach now too.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
You know, I just remember how terrible it was what
I thought, Man, this is my chance to really be dead.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
My dad, my son got captive audience. He's ready to listen.
This is my chance to invest. I'm going to leave
behind my wisdom and my Oh this is a golden opportunity.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
So I gave him what I thought was the best
advice I could give my seventeen year old son, who
was training to be a preacher, And I said, Connor,
don't worry about it. No matter who you are, your
first two hundred sermons are gonna stinking.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
He said, yeah, okay, that sounds good. He went up,
he preached, and he preached, and he did a great job.
He did a good job.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
I don't want to say great good and uh, everybody's
a good job.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
Connor, good job, you know what.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
He got ticked and everybody's like, no, it wasn't good.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
It's supposed to stink. That's what my dad said.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
So anyway, I was thinking about that moment for Connor,
and I think that this is a moment everybody has
in your life when you start something and you stink
and you think maybe this is not for me. Well,
let me take you on a brief tour of your
life so far.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
He's always been like that. It's just you weren't that
conscious of it. You don't even remember when you first
started walking.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Your mom does, and she could tell you that when
you first started walking.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
You stunk. Yeah, she didn't say, well walking's not for him.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Okay, I guess that's just how I You know, when
you started school, you didn't know.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
When you went to college, you didn't know.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
And then when you graduate college or you get done
with education, man, then it really starts.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Then it's like the whole world you don't know. But
here's why the message is called in process.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Once't you write this down, if you're taking those, if
you're not taking those, write it down. Purpose is discovered
in process, not the pinnacle of life. Purpose is discovered
in process, not the pinnacle of life. People are chasing
pinnacles when they should be worried and not worried but

(09:51):
concerned about process. The pinnacle is that you you graduated.
This is a pinnacle, but that's not purpose. Now you're
just moving through the process. You get that first home,
you're not that's the pinnacle moment. It's not the end
this process. You get married, that's a pinnacle moment. And unfortunately,

(10:13):
our culture makes way too much of wedding days, way
too much. I'm doing a wedding on Tuesday. It's gonna
be with four people. Only two of them are getting married,
but four people are gonna be there. The people getting
married into two witnesses. And these people they don't care.
They're just moving through like there's no big celebration of

(10:34):
big fake just and I think what we do in.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Our coats, we always tey to.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Bed because because our phone is kind of training us.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
To do this, you know, we look at everybody's hghlight.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Oh I want to highlight. I want a pinnacle, the pinnacle.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
And by the way, pinnacles are dangerous places. Sometimes when
you get to your pinnacle, that's when you can get proud.
Look at David when he gets to his pinnacle in life.
In first Samuary gets to the to the tots a
second same he gets.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
In the top and he says, you.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Know what, I don't need to fight anymore. David was
a born warrior. I don't need to fight anymore. Joe
ab you go and fight for me. And he goes,
and he strolls on the roof of his house and
he sees a naked woman bathing.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Her name's beth Sheba. We know the rest of that story.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Sometimes the pinnacle is the place of real problems, because
here's the other thing. How do you know is actually
your pinnacle. Maybe God has a higher height for you
to go. Maybe he's got some low places for you.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
To go through.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Maybe he wants you to plateau for a little while
in something so that you can learn the here's words.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
That's called the wilderness season. God is a big fan
of the wilderness.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
Even Jesus went through forty days in the wilderness all alone.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
As God put in this life the things that he
needs to succeed in the.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Next stage, don't chase the pinnacles, trust the process. Starting
the Book of Philippians, Chapter one. I hope you got
your Bible out. Chapter one, Philippians, I love paper Bibles
in the house. Who's got a paper Bible in the house. Yes,
if you're sitting next to somebody without one, feel free
to look at them and judge them. I like paper

(12:17):
bus Do you write in it? You can circle it,
you can do all those things. And we don't really
judge those who don't have a paper Bible, but get one,
because it's good to have one.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
But Philippians has.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
One of the greatest in process passages Flippians one six.
He who began a good work in you will bring
it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Amen. That's what a wonderful, most powerful promises Filippians one six.
Let's put it up, he who began a.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
Good work in you will bring it to completion at
the day of Christ Jesus.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
I am in process. I'm gonna say in process. Now.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
This book is written by a guy named Paul, and
we're gonna talk about a story, but we want to
I want to read from chapter one about this because
has this really really powerful stuff and is probably one
of my favorite passages in the book.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
Of Philippines, Would you stand with me for the.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Reading of God's Word Verse twelve of Philippians, Chapter one.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Here's what it says.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened
to me has really served to advance the gospel. What
has happened to me, Paul says, has really served to
advance the Gospel. Oh, what happened, Paul? What'd you graduate
college seminary?

Speaker 1 (13:26):
What happened? How, let's see what happened, he says, So that.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
It has become known throughout the entire Imperial Guard and
to all the rest, that.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
My imprisonment is for Christ.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
Oh, he's in jail, he's locked up, and people are
learning that the reason why he's locked up is because
of Jesus. And then he says, this is and the brothers,
most of the brothers, anyway, have become confident in the
Lord because of my imprisonment, and are much more.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Bold to speak the Word without fear.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others
out of goodwill. The latter do it out of love,
knowing that I'm here for the defense of the Gospel.
The former proclaimed Christ had a selfish ambition, not sincerely
but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
What then, or some translations say no matter? And I
love that, what that, no matter?

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Only that Christ is preached in every way, and in
that I rejoice.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Then the next verse, and yes, I.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and
the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will
turn out from my deliverance, as it is my eager
expectation and hope that I will not at all be ashamed,
but that with full courage. Now as always, Christ will
be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die

(14:52):
is what gain. This is God's word. Let's pray, Heavenly fathers,
speak to your people the way you want to speak
to them. Made the words of my mouth, the meditation
of my heart. Be pleasing in your sight. And may
we see Jesus.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
In his name. We pray. Everybody said, Amen, God, bless
you have a scene. I have a scene.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
So this book Philippians is not a book. Did you
know that? It's a letter. A lot of the New
Testament books are actually letters. We call them books, but
they're letters. The word epistle is a fancy word for letter.
It is written by a guy named Paul, and Paul
is writing to a church in first century Philippi.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
This is a Roman city.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Used to be a Greek city, used to be a
capital city, very influential city. So he is like writing
a letter from prison to a church in one of
the most major metropolitan areas of the world at high time.
It's it's like a pastor writing to a church in
New York City. And Paul knows from experience that this

(16:05):
reality is unavoidable. We make plans, but God has purposes.
We make plans for our lives. But God has purposes,
and his purposes are bigger than our plans, and his
purposes are not centered.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
On our plans.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Our plans are part of his purposes, and sometimes he
has to ignore our plans.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Altogether to accomplish his purposes.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
And one of the persons that knew that better than
anybody is Paul the Apostle. Because Paul the Apostle was
planning in his old life when he was named Saul
to be the greatest Jewish theologian in his life, in
his time, in his generation, the greatest theologian around. He
was an apprentice of a guy named Gameliel, one of
the most influential, notable teachers and scholars of the day.

(16:58):
He was advancing, he said this later on in Philippius.
He's advancing beyond all of his contemporaries. I mean, he
was the valedictorian of his class. He was important, he
had potential. He was skyrocketing to the top.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Of Judaism in the first century.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Then you heard about this little group called Christians who
were denying, who believed that Jesus, this crucified Nazarene Carpenter,
was the Christ.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
And he couldn't take that they were taking all these Jews.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
Captive by this philosophy. So he decides to go and
start imprisoning these people and locking them up us our
kind of people. And he starts going from town to
town with papers from the chief priests to put them
in prison. And he's on the way to Damascus, and
God totally up ends Paul's plans.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
We have plans, but God has what purpose? And Jesus
is Paul, you're persecuting me.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
And he blinds them for three days and he sends
them into isolation. And Paul comes to Christ and his
life is one hundred and eighty degrees.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
After that, instead of persecuting and.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Chasing down and hunting Christians, he starts producing Christians.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
He starts preaching the message of Jesus. He starts to
be kind. So this man nothing that Paul did did
he do halfway. He did everything full bore. And so
he goes from trying to be.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
The greatest Jewish theologian in his life in his generation,
to trying to be the greatest missionary in his generation.
And so he goes from city to city teaching people
out Jesus.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
And they hate him, and they.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Reject them, and they persecute him and whip them and
stout them and shipwreck them. And he goes through all
these troubles, but he's going, going, going. No one can
stop this man. He wants to tell the whole world
about Jesus.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Powerful, powerful story.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
But twenty years in the Roman leaders come around him,
put him in handcuffs, ship him off to Rome, and
he's locked in a dungeon prison.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
We have plans, but God has purpose.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Is a man who God interrupted plans, good plans, bad plans,
And sitting in that Roman prison, he could have had himself.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
A big fat pity party.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Couldn't he He could have said, like some of you say,
like I have said, God, I am doing my best here,
and this is how you would pay me. Don't you
realize I'm trying to preach. I'm going from Viz City.
I have borne so much hardship for your name, and
you put me in prison. You will Why do you

(19:33):
let the bad guys when anybody have a conversation like
that with God?

Speaker 1 (19:36):
What do you do? You see what's going on? Anybody? Yeah,
I'm like that. And and but he doesn't.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
And sitting in that Roman prison, chain to a Roman centurion,
chain to a Roman centurion, Paul picks up a pen
and a paper and he starts writing letters to the churches.
He doesn't let his changed plans thwart God's purpose. My

(20:08):
friend's life will change your plans, and sometimes God will
let the bad guy win. And you have a choice,
big fat pity party, or pick up.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
The pen and paper and do what you can with
your life right now.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Do something, Find a way to make it influence, find
a way to make an impact right where you are.
There's a way, I'm telling you, And sometimes the greatest
impact that you can.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
Make it is just to get on your knees and pray.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Some of you moms need to listen to me. I
don't know why I'm saying this in the service. Maybe
some moms need to hear.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
But some of you moms, you have wandering children, and
you're thinking, what can I do? God? Why are you
letting the bad guy win over my child's life?

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Get on your knees and pray, because the power of
a praying woman is one of the most powerful earthquakes, shaking,
world changing moments in history. Anyway, that letter becomes the
letter that you writes to the Philippine, the Philippi Church,
the Book of Philippians in our Bibles.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
And do you think that.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
Paul could have seen that that letter would become what
it is. Do you think that Paul, when he was
writing these words could have foretold in himself that this
letter is going to go into Holy Scripture and it's
gonna become part of the.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
New Testament canon of Bible books.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
And it's not just going to go to the Roman world,
is going to go to the uttermost parts of the earth,
and it's not just going to go in the Greek language.
It's gonna go in every language almost known to men,
over two thousand languages.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
For two thousand years, The Letter of Philippias.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
The Letter of Philippius has changed lives young, all black, white, yellow, red, brown,
all over the world because a man who saw his
plans put on pause still gave himself to the purposes
of God.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
What could God do for you in that case?

Speaker 2 (21:59):
So I got three things from Paul here that I
want to share with you, and then we're done. Because
if Paul learned was purpose is discovered in process, not
pinnacle point number one.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Write it down.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
My purpose is tied to the people God puts in
my life. Your your life is not an island, John Dunn,
No man is a n island.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
You you are part of a community.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
This is very anti American right now, very anti American,
because America trains you to focus on you. Be your
true self, your authentic self, Find your true you, your voice,
your story, this your that everything is about you. You you
You You severe isolationism and we think, we think, and
a lot of young people fall for this. You think

(22:46):
that you you think that you're making who you are.
You're not making up who you are. And I guarantee
you that everything that you like is not because of
your individualities, because of.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
The people around you.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
And the things that you don't like is a lot
of because of the people around you. And I want
you to think about your life. Really, let's think about existentially.
You didn't choose when to be born.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Did you. You didn't choose where to be born. You
didn't choose your parents, You didn't choose your ethnicity.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
You didn't choose the generation, the time, the historical timeframe
of your life.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
All that was outside of your control.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
You didn't choose your family, didn't choose the people who
put you in family.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
He didn't choose I mean.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
And all that stuff, all that history of your story
shaped you. And here's what I'm trying to say is
you're not an individual. You're not again very anti American.
But it is so important to understand our purposes because
this is what Paul knew.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
He wrote this letter to the church in Philippi. Here's why.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Because the church in Philippi heard that he had been
put in prison and they cared about him, and so
they sent a love gift, food and money with a
guy named Epaphroditis, one of Paul's friends, to Rome with
the gift to bring to Paul in prison, and to
tell Paul, the church is really worried about you. We

(24:09):
care about how are you doing, how you're holding up,
I mean a prison visit. And Paul hears this and
he's hurt that they're so worked up over his condition.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
So this is why he writes this letter. That's what
verse twelve. Let's look at verse twelve together again.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened
to me has really and the word really could be translated,
actually has actually served to advance the gospel. He's like, hey,
here's what he's doing.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Are you ready?

Speaker 2 (24:33):
He's saying, hey, church, don't worry. God is using this.
I know I'm in prison, but amazingly enough, God has
decided to use my imprisonment to spread the gospel further.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
And so here's how you get Are you ready?

Speaker 2 (24:51):
This is the whole point. Here's how you get the
Book of Philippians translated over two thousand languages and touching
lives billions lies for two thousand years.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Here's how you get it.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Because a group of people cared about one person, and
that one person cared about them. And I'll tell you
the book of Philippians has some.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Of Paul's greatest hits. I'm in his top forty.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
Amen, think about some of the verses we already talked
about whe Phlippis one and six.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
He who began a good work in you will be
favored to bring.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
It to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. How
many of you love yourself that verse? I love that verse?
And then you can go Philippius one twenty one. For
to meet, to live as Christ, and to die is gain.
What a powerful verse?

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Right?

Speaker 2 (25:36):
And Philippius Chapter two, verse five, have this mine in you,
which is also in Christ Jesus.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
What a powerful verse.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
And on and on goes with other verses from the
Book of Philippies Phlippies three thirteen.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
One thing I do forgetting what is behind?

Speaker 2 (25:47):
I strained toward what is ahead or Philippians four to four.
Rejoice in the Lord always, and I will say it again,
rejoice or Philippians four sixty seven. Be anxious for nothing,
but in everything, with prayer, petition, with thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Make your request known to God and.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
The peace of God, which is about that's all understanding. Well,
guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus and Philippians
four thirteen, I can do all things through Christ, who
gives me shreg.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Do you think that two.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Thousand years ago Paul the Apostle could have ever imagined
that those phrases from Philippians four thirteen, I can do
all things through Christ would be written on the basketball
sneaker of Steph Curry as he loses Game two to
the Boston Celtics.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
I just jinxed them, dang it. Anyway.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
The point that I'm making is that you don't get
Philippians without the care and concern of a Christian community
for one another.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
So why you gotta get into small group life group,
E group?

Speaker 2 (26:56):
If you're online, you've got to take that next step
of waters church belonging where you stop just staring at
me for forty five to fifty minutes on Sunday and
you face each other.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
What could God do.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
When you put down your agenda and picked up a
community of people that you care about and they care
about you.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Here, I want you to write this down just to
make sure you're getting it.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
Your purpose is discovered when you stop focusing on what
you want and start thinking about what others need. Who's
hurting in your light. Well, I got hurt, so I'm hurting, Okay.
Who is hurting around you? Who needs what you've got?

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Who?

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Some of you are juniors in the realm of going
through divorce.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
What I mean by that is, it's been a few
decades since you went through it. Who around you has
gone through a.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Divorce and they're a freshmen and they don't know what
the heck they're going to do. You gotta come around
and put your armor on.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
I've been there. Who's lost a job? You're a junior,
You're a senior.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
You lost a few jobs back in the day, and
now you see other people losing their judt Hey put
your arm around them, help them. Stop focusing on what
you want and start thinking about what others need. That
is the process by which God unveils his purpose for you. Or,

(28:25):
as Paul says so eloquently in Philippines two three, do
nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility. In humility,
great June word, right there, great June Month of June.
Humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
In a world that is all about.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
Flaunting your pride, the Church must be completely counter to
that and laid down our pride and surrender who we
think we are, and give our lives to Jesus Christ,
who will amplify our lives for his good and the
benefit of other people.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
Point number two.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
My purpose is fueled through the pain God allows for me.
We don't like pain, but we can't avoid it. Now
here's the good news.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
We need it. We need pain.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
There is a condition, I don't know what it's called,
where someone can be born where they their nervous system
does not send the message to their brain that they're
actually being hurt. These people, it sounds like a good thing,
like imagine you could touch the hot stove.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
And not be bothered by it.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
Sounds nice, But you could destroy They can destroy themselves
because your nervous system is there to alert you to hey,
something needs to stop here. Don't touch that, don't keep
moving in that direction, don't walk there right If you
didn't feel the pain, you wouldn't you wouldn't move forward
in the right in.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
The right way. Pain is something that God allows.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
And I think again about Paul the apostle, who God
allowed him to get arrested because he was preaching the gospel.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
I mean, he's preaching about.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
God's son, and God allows him to get put in
prison again pity party or purpose, And he writes it, Look,
this pain is actually being used by God. This is
how I found I found my purpose through the pain.
So verse thirteen, he says, Number one, it's become known

(30:43):
throughout the whole Imperial Guard.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Look at it, verse thirteen. It has become known throughout
the whole Emperial Guard.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Now the Imperial Guard was like the rangers of the military,
of the army.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
Army range like really.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
High up specialized ops.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
And and and he goes those people because they're here
guarding me.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
They've learned that I'm here, not because I've killed people
or stolen they're here. They know that I'm here because
I talk about this guy named Jesus. And I just
think about the fact that that Paul had to be
chained to a Roman centurion. And they probably you know,
did it in shifts. So could you imagine being the.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Roman centurion chained to Paul.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
I mean, the guy would be just talking your ear
off about Jesus. I talk about a captive audience, by
the way, amen, and just for twelve hours, and let
me tell you about Jesus he changed my life. I
used to be a geo. I used to be going
out the Jesus. You can change your life. You could
change your life. Oh, I'm telling you could heal that. Oh,
by the way, your mom, you could heal if you
prayed the Holy Spirit. Could you feel your mom if
you and that just for twelve hours.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
This guy's like, no, all.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Right, fine, but a couple of them got saved.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
How do I know that? Well, look at the last
verse in your notes.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
I should have it here, But at the last verse
of your knows, because look at it says in Philippus
four or twenty one, greet every saint in Christ, Jesus,
the brothers who are with me, greet you. All the
saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
So the imperial guards.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Got saved because Paul was changed to them for twelve
hours a day. Eventually they spread the gospel message and
it went all the way up to Caesar's palace, and
even some of Caesar's family members came to Christ.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Because Paul was in prison, though he probably never would
have gotten an audience with Caesar's household if he hadn't
gone to prison. So let me ask you what audience
has God given you through your pain? Because I'll tell
you something wonderful about pain. It makes great friends. People

(32:57):
who've heard your pain and have had your pain will
listen to you. Sometimes that's the only way you get
an audience through pain, through trouble, through turmoil. And this
is what Paul had to experience for himself. You know,
one of the biggest questions that we get in the
in the in the pastoral profession is what's the deal
with evil?

Speaker 1 (33:18):
Pastor what's the deal with evil? Why is there evil?

Speaker 2 (33:20):
Why are nineteen kids and two teachers shot in cold
blood through some psychopathic maniac?

Speaker 1 (33:27):
What's with that?

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Or what's with the governmental corruption that we see from
head to toe at almost every country? You know, really seriously, Well,
it was with evil. And here's what you have to understand.
The Bible teaches us about evil a lot. And what
I love about the Bible is that it does not
sugarcoat evil. Evil is everywhere, and it's unavoidable, and it

(33:54):
will not end until Jesus comes back. We know that
that's what the Bible teaches. You can feel free to
reject that, but that's what the Bible teaches evil will
be here until Jesus comes back. The reason why evil
god here is because Adam and Eve chose sin over
serving God. So every evil in the world has been
perpetrated by man's rebellion against God.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Now here's the bigger picture of evil.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
Because evil gets personal, God uses evil to accomplish great good.
There's a story in the Book of Genesis. It's about
a guy named Joseph. It's actually one of the longest
stories in the whole Book of Genesis. Joseph is the
son of one of twelve sons to a guy.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Named Jacob, and.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Joseph is Jacob's favorite son, and his brothers hate him
for it. And Joseph's has dreams and he can interpret dreams.
And everybody thinks a lot of Christians think that Joseph's
story is about how to fulfill your dreams. It is
not about how to fulfill your dreams. Let's unpack it
a little bit for you to understand what joseph story

(35:06):
is about.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
He has the dreams, he tells his brothers. The brothers
hate him, the brothers want to kill him.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
And instead of killing him, they said, you know what,
let's just sell him into slavery so he can make
some money off of them, so they sell him into
the hands of the Medians. The Midians bring him down
to a guy named Potterphar's house, and in Potiphar's house,
his wife falls for Joseph and she tries to sleep
with Joseph, and Joseph says, I can't do this against God,
and he does the right thing, and she claims rave
and throws them into prison.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
And this guy, who with all the dreams.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
And all the good that he's doing, is landed up
in prison just like Paul, and he said prison. And
there's two prisoners who have dreams, and he interprets the
dreams to the prisoners. One gets killed, the other one
gets their stored to at Pharaoh's right hand. And Joseph says, listen,
remember me when you get restored, because I'm in here
on justlee. And the guy goes back to Pharaoh's house
and he totally forgets about Joseph, and Joseph is there for.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
Two years, pain pain, pain, pain, and then one day
Pharaoh has a dream and now I'm gonna interpret it.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
And the cup bearer to the king says, I remember
a guy that I was in prison with he can
interpret my dreams, maybe he can help you. And then
one day Joseph.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Has brought from the prison back to the palace of
Pharaoh and he interprets Pharaoh's dream and Peril says, this
guy's got the spirit of God. I'm gonna put him
in charge. He's gonna be my prime minister. And Joseph
finally sees his dreams come true. But it went through
the pain, and there's a great worldwide famine, but Joseph
had saved grain, and wouldn't you know, the family is.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Spread all the way back.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Home in Israel, and his brothers have to come before him,
those same eleven brothers who sowed him into slavery, and
the Bible says that they bow at his feet and
they don't even recognize him because he's got all the
Egyptian makeup on, you know, you.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Know, and they cann't even recognize him.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
And Joseph has a perfect revenge opportunity. I could cut
their heads off, I could torture them, I could throw
them in prison like it did to me.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
And they find out it's Joseph and his big weeping moment.
Everybody's hugging each other, hogging it out.

Speaker 4 (36:59):
But then they said, they think, wait a second, Joseph
might do something bad when Dad dies, and said, they
come to Joseph, and they say, Joseph, before Dad died,
he told us that you should forgive us.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
These people don't stop lying.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
This poor guide's always getting manipulated. And what does he
say Genesis, chapter fifty, verse nineteen. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, as
is this, But Joseph said to them, do not fear
for am I in the place of God.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Now look at this line. As for you, you meant.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
What evil against me, But God meant it for good,
to bring about that many people should be kept alive
as they are today. You see what Joseph had. He
had a bigger picture of his purposes. My purposes, not
for me, is to help people around me. And then
he also saw that evil is actually used and levers
by God. Because the tory of Joseph is not just

(37:49):
about Joseph, you know, the story of Joseph's not even
about us. The story of Joseph appointed to somebody.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Who would come.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Much later after Joseph, a man named Jesus.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
A man named Jesus who.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Would be you were loved by his father, but rejected
by his brothers and.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
Cast him to the pit of death. But on the
third day you would come out.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
Of that grave resurrect in power, and you give power
to the Church.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
And through the.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
Death of Christ, thousands and billions of people have been transformed.
Through the evil that man intended against Christ, God has
brought billions of good.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
That is the story of Joseph.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
And that is how God leverages our evil for his
ultimate good. If you're a Christian today, and if you're
going to heaven, I'm telling you you're going to heaven
because of the evil that Jesus went through on the cross.
I know that doesn't solve every question you're in your mind,
but at least it lets you know that there's someone

(38:46):
in heaven who knows what it felt like.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
To go through hell. So what are you doing with
your pain? Or a wider angle lens of purpose?

Speaker 2 (39:06):
Some of you got to tell yourself this, God get
glory out of this story.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
I should have had to write that down as a note.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
Maybe you should write in the margin, is God get
glory out of this story. I'm hurting, I'm weak, I'm done,
I want to quit but if you can use this
to glorify yourself, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
And Paul resolves about that in Philippians. And now he
didn't sugarcoat it.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
He still knew that there would be some people with
Shenanigans up their sleeve, because look at verse fifteen.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
He says, some preach Christ from envy and rivalry.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
You know, you still do the right thing, and still
some people will abuse it.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
He says, the latter will do it out of love,
knowing that I'm here for the gospel.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Then he says this, the former proclaimed Christ had a
selfish ambition.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
They try to afflict me. So even when we understand pain,
and even understanding the.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
Purpose of our pain, we still will feel some pinches
from people with terrible motives.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
There's nothing you can do about that.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
But here's what Paul decides in verse eighteen, what then,
or no matter?

Speaker 1 (40:10):
I like that? No matter?

Speaker 2 (40:12):
Another translation is nevertheless only that in every way, whether pretense.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Or truth, Christ is proclaimed.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
And in that I rejoice, and I will rejoice. God
get glory from my story point number three. My purpose
is fulfilled when I surrender my future to God's plan.
You want to get yourself here, I would like to
say that you want to get yourself here.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
Before the day is out because you don't know the future,
and neither do I.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Man makes plans, but God has a purpose. And so
some of you are graduating high school. You're so excited,
you're so excited about the college experience, and you're gonna
get a degree in pharmaceuticals and you're gonna go when
you're gonna make billions of millions of dollars and you're
gonna think, you're so excited to be Oh, this is

(41:08):
my plan.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
Okay, all right, all right, pay attention to this next moment.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
If you're in this room and you graduated college and
you're currently doing a job that had nothing to do with.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
What you went to college for, raise your hand. Okay.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
So there was a time when all these people were
just like you, and God's purpose up ended their plans.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
This is very freeing.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
This is why I told my son your first two
hundred sermons are gonna.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Think because it's okay to fail.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
It's okay to get two years into a degree program
and realize suddenly that you have no interest in that
degree program whatsoever, and change courses and do something different.
Don't get so locked up into thinking that you have
to have it all figured out, that you create a
prison of your own making that will leave you miserable

(42:06):
for decades generations.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
No, no, no, no, no, It's okay to fail.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
It's okay to fail chemistry, my friend, fail chemistry to
the glory of God, because that's what life is, is
a bunch of I don't know and who knows what's
going to happen. But you got to settle in your heart.

(42:31):
I will rejoice vers eighteen, Yes, and I will rejoice.
Don't let the devil steal your joy just because you
change plans or plans were changed for you. Don't let
the devil take steal your joy. I'm reading a book
right now is called The Bodies of Others. The Bodies
of Others, And I only read this book because the
woman who wrote it got banned from Twitter as soon
as it was published.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
That's a book I want to read.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
So the premise of the book is how the COVID
pandemic trained us to believe that our great harm came
from the.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Bodies of others.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
The six feet distancing stuff, social distancing, be alone, stay
at home, save lies, all this garbage that was force
fed to us for the last three years, ridiculous nonsense,
and we're isolated. And the book talks about how scores
of studies have been done that the number one way
we punish people in our prisons today is what solitary confinement,

(43:27):
and studies have been done about how only just twenty
four hours of solitary confinement can permanently alter the brain
structure for life. And our governmental leaders put all of
us in solitary for two years and some even still,
some of you're still at home, can't go to church.

(43:49):
Why because the bodies of others when all the science
crews on.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
The other end of the spectrum. That in togetherness, there's
unity and community and.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Our immune system gets strong longer through relationships and being
around each other.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
We're actually here to help each other. That's the Christian message.
They'll know your mind desires while you're loved one another,
not by your song goes.

Speaker 5 (44:11):
That's like, well, and I mean, honestly, I'm just so
so mad about all this stuff, and so mad because
I know what the scriptures teaching, I know how science
has been used as a weapon.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
To keep you isolated. And then we have people going
into schools and shooting.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
People up, and we wonder why their brains have been
chewed up.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
By nonsense for two years. We need to get back
to what Scripture teaches us.

Speaker 6 (44:42):
The book.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
It talks about how one of the healthiest things that
you can do for your body.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
You'll never believe this.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
One of the healthiest things you can do for your
body you don't even need to be a Christian, is
to get in a group of people like this and
sing the same song together.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
You sing a song with a group of people, it
make you stronger.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
It actually improves your immune system, it makes you happier,
it releases endorphins. That's why we ask you to come
early and sing with us, because when you are a
Christian to do it, the Holy Spirit gets involved.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
And it is even better.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
And you gotta come into service after a long week
when everybody's hating on you and life is changing on you,
and the kid won't.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
Come back to Christ. You need to start singing to yourself.

Speaker 7 (45:23):
Christ is my firm foundation, the rock on which I
stand when everything round me is shaking, I'll never be
more glad.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
Oh, I've put my faith in Jesus.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
He's never led me down. I don't know the rest,
but you know what I'm talking about. So why should
he feel now? That's right?

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
Somebody kept singing it.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
He won't.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
He won't fail you.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
Young people graduated college you want failure, young people out
of high school, don't know what you're gonna do.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
That's okay. He won't fail you. And you're gonna just
lost a job and.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
Your career is going in a completely different way, or
maybe you're upside down in your mortgage right now.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
He won't fail you.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
He's never failed, and he won't start now.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
And you need to get around. People will sing out
of your speret. Paul says, look, I've already taken care
of the hard part. I've already surrendered my life to Jesus.
I've already surrendered my future.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
And he says this, I know verse nineteen that through
your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
This will turn out for my deliverance.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
And notice that he doesn't suggest that the deliverance means
escaping jail verse twenty.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
It's my eager.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Expectation and hope that I will not be ashamed, but
that with full courage now is always Christ will be
honored in my body, whether by life or by death,
and verse twenty one for to me to live his
Christ and a diet's gain.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
And sadly yes, one day, months.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Or a year later, a Roman centurion would walk into
that prison cell, take Paul by the hand, and bring
him out to a place where.

Speaker 6 (47:00):
They would cut his head off. And his letters are
still being read and honored two thousand years later.

Speaker 8 (47:12):
So this question you gotta ask, am I surrendered to
God's endgame for my life? Am I surrendered to God's
endgame for this marriage, endgame to this single mis endgame,
to my career and game to my retirement and game,
to whatever it is that you're about to end whatever,

(47:33):
just to give God your future sermon in the sentence,
my purpose is in process, involving the people around me,
the pain within me, and the end game.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
God plans for me. You don't have to reach for pinnacles.
You have to trust the process.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
And I believe when you trust the process, the best
is always yet to come.