*Big Idea: Purpose.. Passion.. Path..

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)

Purpose.. Passion.. Path..

Read pg 85 1st par on down

Time

Write down what you think your purpose is (I’ll give you 2 min)

Open up your calendar app

What did you do today (90 secs)…

Look at the week view on your calendar. What did you do this week (2 min)

Now look at the month view on your calendar. What did you do this month (2 min)

How much did you work? How much of that time was school? How much of that time was hanging out with friends? How much of that time was social media? How much of that time was spent on Kingdom stuff (reading your bible, prayer, serving somewhere in the Kingdom, teaching a bible study, serving somewhere in the Local church?

Has it been on purpose?

Look at your year view on your calendar app. In all of those areas maybe some that I didn’t mention, where has you time gone? Where have you spent your life? And, has it been intentional. Has it been on purpose?

[Me] 7 min

What you desire you _____ toward

What you desire about you drift toward

When I had a crush in high school

I wrote the worlds worst poetry.. but, I thought that I was killing it at the time

She consumed my thoughts, probably had a few journal entries about her, those thoughts took up time. Writing bad poetry took time…

Wrestling

I wasn’t very good in the beginning, but I put hrs of extra work in. I read about it. I practiced outside of practice. I talked about it. Dreamed about it. What you dream about you drift toward. What you set your heart to you set your thoughts to and then you actions.

My calendar was full of wrestling. Wrestling practice. Wrestling meets. Watching wrestling on TV (the real kind). I would sit in chemistry class and think about offensive and defensive approaches to my up coming matches. I was learning chemistry, but I was longing for wrestling. I got better as a wrestler, but I failed chemistry.

Film making

I love a good story.. Rather it’s reading a good book or watching a movie with a really good storyline. I have mentioned how this desire led me to film school. I am still paying my college loan debt for that desire. Now, I’m glad that I went and I am willing to pay that debt back. But there are some desires that lead us into directions, some passions that lead us down certain paths that leave us with consequences and scars and pain and regrets and all of this spiritual and emotional debt that isn’t worth it. Jesus paid the debt for our sins. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the debt of regret over the time wasted. Over the money wasting… if you what you are longing for cost money. I’m talking about the purpose wasted if want you are longing for isn’t your purpose. Are you longing for something that isn’t worth the emotional or spiritual debt?

Desires, not knowledge, Determine Direction

When it was a particular girl.. a certain hobby (wrestling).. or a specific vocation.. my desires led me down a certain direction and that direction always matched my desires… the same is true for you.

[You] 2 min

RQ: How many of you have tried to get in shape, you desired it on the surface but underneath there was a stronger desire to just keep doing the things that you have been doing. It’s not that you didn’t want to go to the gym, it was just easier to stay on the couch. Or maybe you wanted to go back to school. It’s not that you didn’t want to go back, but you already have your job and your friends and your current life rhythm and all of the desire for these things out weighed that desire.. Maybe its your daily spiritual disciplines. It’s not that you don’t want to read you bible more it’s just that Netflix, Youtube, a social life, school, social media, the stuff that you already do for church all find ways to fill up your calendar. One preacher said if you want to know what I worship don’t listen to what I say, but look at my calendar and my check book.

Calendar & Check Book = What You Love

Think back about our exercise in the beginning. How you spent your day. How you spent your week.. how you spent last month. Where ever your time and money went during that time reflect you emotional and spiritual appetite

[God] 30 min

What Do You Want?

Excerpt from James A Smith’s You Are What You Love:

“When two would-be disciples who are caught up in John the Baptist’s enthusiasm begin to follow, Jesus wheels around on them and pointedly asks, “What do you want?” (John 1:38). It’s the question that is buried under almost every other question Jesus asks each of us. “Will you come and follow me?” is another version of “What do you want?,” as is the fundamental question Jesus asks of his errant disciple, Peter: “Do you.. love me?” (John 21:16 NRSV).

We Are what we Want

James Smith goes on to say: Jesus doesn’t encounter Matthew and John - or you and me - and ask “What do you.. know?” He doesn’t even ask, “What do you.. believe?” He asks, “What do you.. want?” This is the most incisive, piercing question Jesus can ask of us precisely because we are what we want

“Our longings and desires are at the core of our identity”

Your life choices will always reflect your heart’s desires.

Think about the drug addict who is strung out.

We see visually the cost of their choices. The end result of where their desire led them. They look like the sum of their choices. Their health was not their focus and its shows. Their finances were their focus and it shows. Family, friends and other relationships were not their focus and there is most likely a string of broken relationships that reflect that. They are a reflection - biochemically speaking - of their inward desires.

But what about you?

But, what about you and me? If you physically looked like what you find yourself desiring spiritually and emotionally what would you look like?

Would you walk around covered in a pile of clothes

bc you love fashion?

Would there be a sign posted on your forehead that said bad credit because you bought a car that you couldn’t afford just bc you longed for it? Or a house?

Would we see you being dragged on the ground with a rope that went from your heart to the back of the foot of your love interest bc you found your identity in feeling loved by someone?

Would you always be in your work uniform bc your identity is in your job. Or would you spend more time on your hobby then your God given purpose.

[Calendar Pic]

You are what you repeatedly do. Love is less an emotion and more a routine. That’s why your calendar will always tell what you worship most.

If I could always find time for wrestling but struggle to find time to be involved in church then you would see my real priorities. The things that I found my real identity in.

Purpose.. Passion.. Path..

Discipleship is more a matter of hungering and thirsting than of knowing and believing. Jesus’s command to follow him is a command to align our loves and longings with his— to want what God wants, to desire what God desires, to hunger and thirst after God and crave a world where he is all in all..

“To crave a world where He is all in all”

Q: Let’s take 2 min and break off into pairs and talk about some of the things that you find yourself craving for.... [2 min later] What are some of the things that you find yourself desiring after.. what do you give your time to?

Q: What are some of the things that you find yourself desiring after.. what do you give your time to?

Q: In ways have you seen people guided by their desires even when it was obviously a bad idea?

Q: What makes the heart so hard to ignore?

This is probably why the heart was not made to ignore, but instead to be subdued and shaped.. we will get to the shaping [“what you must do” part]

Jesus isn’t content to simply deposit new ideas into your mind... he is after nothing less than your wants, your loves, your longings.

His “teaching” doesn’t just touch the calm, cool collected space of reflection and contemplation;

Jesus is a teacher who seeks to invade the heated, passionate regions of the heart

He is the Word that is “piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Heb 4:12

It is the heart that most shapes our choices. What we value will always be found in our heart.. and what’s in our heart will always be reflected in our lives.

Rd. pg 89 4th Paragraph to 91 (half of page).. then pick up on the bottom of 93 through half of 94

Holiness is always a matter of the heart. So, whatever is in the heart will not just stay within. It will come out as words, attitudes, actions and apparel. Yes, what we say, what we do and how we dress all reflect what we worship.

I had two friends.. one was a new convert feeling the personal convictions of the pants in her closet. She was a critical thinker. You would never force her into a corner or make her feel that she needed to dress a certain way. She studied the Word sought God on how to best live it out in our American culture. Her seeking allowed God to make it clear to her heart that he valued distinction between men and women to the degree of dress. She got rid of her pants and bought all skirts and dresses… My other friend who had grown up in the Apostolic faith began to ask questions about standards bc while she had grown up in it she had never really matured in her understanding of what she believed so she wondered about those beliefs. Nothing is wrong with wondering.. as long as your willing to prayerfully study the Word and seek God for how to best live it out in our culture. She did neither and she eventually walked away.

It was as if they crossed each other while going in opposite directions. As one was growing in her faith and convictions the other was walking away so at some point both of them had similar wardrobes as they were both in transition.

Here is another excerpt for the article

My friend who’s thoughts about what she wore changed because of how she felt. She came to know and understand something and overtime that shaped her heart and how she felt about what she knew. Her parents didn’t teach this conviction. They weren’t in church. It came from aiming to bury her heart in Christ. To seek what pleases Him and she was willing to make whatever change came out of it.

15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16)

Some say holiness is only a matter of what’s in your heart. Yet, we know that like a seed what’s in the heart will always grow outward in our attitude and appearance.

[what must you know?]

Shaping the Heart: Rhythms, Routines and Rituals.

You must know that you were made for a purpose. Many of you already know that. But, do your rhythms, routines and rituals reflect that?

According to Matt 28:19-20 we all called to be disciples of Jesus who go out and make disciples. Do you teach bible studies? Do you witness to others about your faith? When is the last time you invited someone to church or to a church event? Do you have time set aside daily to pray and to read your Bible. Have you moved beyond attending church to serving in ministry? You don’t have to win the world. You just have to be willing and able to reach out to those God allows into your life. You don’t have to win the world, but without the right spiritual rhythms and routines the world will win you.. Slowly maybe, but definitely overtime. Because if you don’t have sacred rhythms then your secular ones will shape your heart pull you away from your God given purpose. You may not fall into some major sin, you may just chose Netflix over bible study. You may become better at understanding the complex apps on your phone then the books the Bible. You may become better at explaining your favorite show then you are at understanding and explaining God’s big story for someone’s life.

Why must you know it?

You are what you love because you live toward what you want

[What must you do?]

Build routines that shape your heart (affections) over time?

[Why must you do it?]

If you don’t take charge of shaping your heart then it will still be shaped. We are designed to worship something. Your heart will find something to hunger for and to be drawn toward.

Some of you may long for something so deeply that it doesn’t matter what I’ve said so far or what we’ve talked about tonight. While you have heard this content.. your heart is saying, “yeah we hear you, we may even know that it’s true, but it’s not what I want.”

Others here this and you know that your purpose and your current desires don’t match up and your willing to wrestle with it. To begin looking in the spiritual mirror and seeing what habits may need to change in order to build a life that looks like the one to which you are called.

Purpose.. Passion.. Path..

[You]

You have to work, you will find hobbies you fall in love and get married. But imagine, if none of these things took the top spot in your heart. What if what took the top spot kept everything else in order? What if your love for God and his Kingdom meant that you built your work life around your Kingdom life? You picked your school life around your church involvement? You might not be as involved when you are in school, but bc Jesus is number one you still find a place to serve.. to help make disciples. You will one day decide to date or to get married but because Jesus is number one, you make sure that the person you’re with also has Jesus at the top of their heart. That they don’t just attend church, but that they serve. If they don’t serve then your kids won’t serve. What you love now will impact not just impact you later. It will impact the family that you have. That you are not even thinking about right now.

How many wish that your parents had always loved the rights things? How would your life be different if mom or dad had taken the time to check their heart and see if Jesus was at the top? How would your home be different? How would your life be different? You owe it to your future self and your future spouse and your future kids to check your affections now.

It matters What. You. Love.

How many can attest to choices you’ve made when Jesus was not at the top of your heart? The regrets are very real. The death of Jesus paid the debt of our sin, but we can still live with the scars. It matters What. You. Love. because it shapes who you are.

Purpose.. Passion.. Path..

I’ll finish with this. The good news. It doesn’t matter where you are on your journey. Build the right habits and give yourself time. Be patient with yourself. But also be persistent. Keep showing up. Keep attending. Make time for prayer. Spend real time with Jesus and see what happens over time. Study the Bible for yourself. Protect these spiritual habits and let Jesus shape your heart.

What you love now impacts you now.