Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:04] Well, good morning, everybody. I'm glad you are here. And I have a couple of special recognitions I wanted to make this morning before we get into the message. One of them involves one of our lead security officers. He serves with the Tarrant County SWAT Division. You may have recalled, about a year ago, he was shot in the the line of duty and God just incredibly, miraculously spared his life. And this past week, maybe 10 days ago, the governor, Greg Abbott, awarded our Deputy Todd Tipton the Star of Texas, which is an honor, a special reward only given out to about 28 very brave, heroic Texans. And so he comes and takes up a place among a very elite group of people to ever receive that honor. And, and I just wanted to mention our own very wonderful member, very special guy, Deputy Todd Tipton. Would you acknowledge him this.
[00:01:30] Now, you'll probably see him on the way out of the door, but he is a. He hates it when I do that sort of thing.
[00:01:36] I probably get stopped and checked on the way home, you know, for something, you know, bumping the line or some kind of deal, you know. But anyway, I just wanted to mention that I'm so proud of him. He's so humble about that sort of thing. But I am so glad that God spared his life and I'm glad he's a part of our security detail and also a member of our church. It's a shame we have to have a security detail, isn't it?
[00:02:00] But this is just the world that we're living in today. And I thank God for these men and women who are very willing to make sure that we have a safe experience, that our kids are safe. And I'm so grateful for law enforcement and all of our first responders, many of you in the room, you have that role and calling in life. And so I just say God bless you and thank you for your service and all that you do for us. We're starting a brand new series that I'm really excited about because I think it's something that's very pertinent to the time in which you and I are living. I think it's very significant that you and I consider the theme of this particular series because we are largely in control of, of the outcome of what I want to talk to you about, and that is living a life that matters. Living a life that matters. I don't know if you ever thought about it, but we actually are preaching our funerals while we live.
[00:02:57] Now, there's a lot that I can say or do at a funeral service, and I do hundreds of those services, and I have done hundreds of them over 50 years in ministry. But I can tell you that I only have to work with the material that I've been given.
[00:03:12] Oftentimes, I'll know someone personally and I'll know a little more about their life, perhaps because of my personal involvement with them. And oftentimes I'm called upon to officiate a funeral for someone that I didn't know that well. And so their family will share a lot of information about that individual. But at the end of the day, all any minister can do at a memorial service is to try to pick up on the highlights of that individual's life and then in a short period, period of time, try to honor their memory and try to make everyone aware of the legacy that they've left. But the reality of all of that is, as I said a moment ago, you and I are really preaching our funerals while we live. We will be remembered by the lives that we're living today.
[00:03:57] And I think it's important to stop and consider, how will I be remembered? How will people recall my life?
[00:04:04] When they think about me, what will they think about? When my family thinks about me, what will they think about? I told you, I did a service one time for a guy, and. And I knew this guy very well. And so I had to kind of cherry pick some of the highlights of his life to make sure that I did a good job at his memorial service, because he also had some other things in his life that you didn't really want to emphasize.
[00:04:27] And so I was, you know, I. I can do the best I can. You know, I can spin anybody. And so I was. I was kind of spinning this guy.
[00:04:35] And so I go down as you do, and I'm standing at the head of the casket and the people are walking by. And a friend of his that went to high school with him, now, he lived up into his 70s, you know, 75 or so when he passed away. And this lady had gone to high school, and I'd known her all of my life.
[00:04:50] She was a pastor's wife of another church in town. And she came by, and as she grabbed ahold of my hand at the head of the casket, she pulled me in real close to her and. And whispered in my ear. She said I needed to come by and look in the casket to make sure I was at the right funeral.
[00:05:10] She said, after hearing everything you said about him, that's not at all the person I remember.
[00:05:16] And then she said, no, I'm just kidding. You know, you did a good job or whatever. And I thought about that, laughed about that, even shared it with the family later on. And they got a big kick out of it because you just would have had to know this guy. He was a funny guy. But the reality of it is, as I think about it again this morning, is you and I will. We really are in control of how we will be remembered. I remember when I grew up, growing up rather, I saw a little bumper sticker one time that stuck with me. Perhaps you've seen this. It says, only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. And that is so true. Life is going by so fast. I was talking to someone the other day at an event, and we were just. Hadn't seen each other in a few years, and it was just amazing to meet their kids and see their kids now and how much they'd grown, how quickly they've grown. And that was seemingly the comment that we would make as we got reacquainted after years of being apart. And it was just like, wow, how fast this life is going by, how quick time is. Is moving by. And when you look into the Bible and you talk about and study the things that the Bible speaks about. Physical life.
[00:06:22] Every time you read a physical life in the Bible, the shortness of it and the uncertainty of it is always emphasized.
[00:06:30] When it speaks of life, it said, life is like a dream.
[00:06:33] You just wake up from it. One moment it said, life is like the grass that grows up in the spring and withers away in the fall.
[00:06:42] The Bible describes life as a puff of smoke, a vapor. You just reach for it and suddenly it's gone.
[00:06:48] And so when the Bible talks about life again, the shortness and the uncertainty of it is always emphasized. Have you ever thought about it? When you go out into the cemetery and you honor perhaps someone that you've lost, and you lay the flowers there, and you look at the tombstone, you look at that headstone, and on that headstone, there are two dates. There is the day in which that person was born, and there is the day in which that person died. And separating those two dates is a little tiny dash.
[00:07:17] And that entire lifetime of that person is compressed into a dash between two dates. That's life.
[00:07:25] Our lives are simply a dash between two dates. If Jesus tarries his coming, we're probably not gonna get out of this thing alive. And so it is important from time to time that you and I stop long enough to consider the life that we're living. And what we will be leaving behind.
[00:07:43] You remember when you were growing up and someone would ask you, what do you want to be when you grow up? You remember that our kind of, our ideas of what we wanted to be kind of changed over time, right? We had one idea and then we had another idea. And really, when you consider as a child what you wanted to be when you grow up, what starts out as an exploration, shall we say, becomes an expedition.
[00:08:10] And really, as you get older, you begin to realize it's more significant who I'm becoming than who I have become, that really life is not just about the destination.
[00:08:20] Life is really about the journey.
[00:08:22] And it's the journey that we will be remembered most for. I read this last week. Philosopher named Ernest Becker. And he argued that humanity's greatest fear is to die without significance. Listen to this. He said what people fear is not extinction, but extinction without significance. That people really want to know that their life mattered, that they made a difference in someone else's life. I read another survey of people who lived above 90 years of age. And those people who were above 90 years of age were asked, if you could live your life over again, if you could do it all over again, what would you do differently? And this is the top three responses of people when asked that question who are above 90 years of age. One said, I would reflect more, I would slow down, I would reflect more, I would take in life more. We might say, stop and smell the roses. A second popular response is I would risk more. I wouldn't be afraid to try things that I hadn't tried before. I think I would risk more. And then the third most popular response was this. I would do more things that will live on after I'm gone.
[00:09:31] Do more things that will live on after I'm gone. Or I would put it in context of our series. I would live a life. I would live a life that matters. Now, our text for this series is in First Peter chapter four. If you have a Bible, you might look there, look at it on your device, or if not, we've got it for you on the screen. And in First Peter chapter four, listen to how this chapter opens in verse one where it says therefore. Therefore. Now, always remember when you read the Bible as we talked about and you see the word therefore, always look and see what it's there for.
[00:10:02] It connects what he has just said with what he's about to say. So when you back up into the end of chapter three and you read this in context, he's just told us that Jesus went to the cross. He died for our sins. His life made a difference. His life mattered. And because of the death and the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus, you and I can have a relationship with our Heavenly Father. So that's the context.
[00:10:26] So he moves from considering the death of our Savior into this narrative where he says, therefore, because that's true, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same mindset, with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. Now, he's not talking about reaching a state or a status where you're sinlessly perfect. He's saying that when you go through something, it changes the way you look at sin.
[00:10:52] Meaning that once you've gone through something devastating and once you've gone through something heartbreaking, it changes the way you look at life. And so it changes some patterns of life. And you take life more seriously, is kind of the idea that he's conveying there. And then he says in verse two, then, as a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for selfish human passions, but rather for the will of God. He's talking about an epiphany.
[00:11:20] He's talking about a moment in life where a person takes account of all they've gone through and maybe even all that they're going through. And they make a determination that for the rest of my time, I'm gonna live a life that matters. I'm not gonna live according to my own selfish ambitions or desires, but I wanna live with this idea in my forefront. What does God want me to do with the rest of my time? I can't do anything about my past. Neither can you.
[00:11:46] We can do everything about our future. And the challenge of the series is for us to take into account where we are and who we are and where we're going and make some changes and say, starting today, I wanna live a life. I wanna live a life that matters. The first thing I think that you have to do if you're going to live a life that matters and you're going to make a difference and be remembered fondly when you're gone is is there has to, first and foremost, be a connection with your designer. You have to know the God who has created you. And God created you with purpose. He created you on purpose. He created you for purpose. I told you. We talked a little bit about this idea a few years ago when we did a series called Sculpted. And I was thinking about that series, and I thought about something that I brought out. I wanna bring out again this morning. Cause it Just seemed to fit right here.
[00:12:38] And that was when I was growing up.
[00:12:41] We had in our house a drawer in the kitchen that we fondly called the junk drawer.
[00:12:47] I don't know if you guys have that kind of terminology. Let me explain what it represents. And then you probably call it something different. It's that drawer where everything goes into it that you're not sure where it goes, but it looks important, so you don't want to throw it away, right? You have those little electronic connections and devices, and you just look at that and you go, I don't know what this is. I don't know what it does. And. But I'm really afraid to throw it away.
[00:13:10] Cause the minute I do that, the Internet will go down, the TV won't work, the security system will go on the fritz. You know, everything goes wrong, my roof may fall in. So you hold onto it. You don't know what it is, you don't know what it's for, but it looks important. It's the junk drawer. And you go to that from time to time, and you try to identify those objects. And what I'm saying to you is, God doesn't have a junk drawer.
[00:13:34] He created you with purpose. He created you with a design in mind. He has something for. He's never looked down and found you and said, what am I gonna do with that one?
[00:13:45] That's never happened. They look important.
[00:13:49] They look like they fit somewhere. I just don't know where they fit. God has never had that moment with you. And I'm saying, guys, if we're gonna genuinely discover the purpose that God has created us and the thing he's designed us to do, if we're gonna live a life that matters, it involves connecting with our Creator to know the one who designed us. Probably one of the most powerful chapters that really underscore this point is the 139th Psalm. And in the 139th Psalm, David is wrapping his mind around the idea that our designer loves us, and our designer watches out for us. And our designer has a point plan for us. And as I read through that, I made a couple of notes that I wanted to share with you. One was Psalm 139, 1:4. God knows me.
[00:14:39] He says, lord, you have searched me and known me. Listen, God knows you. As I said a moment ago, he didn't just discover you. He knows you because he created you. God knows me. Look, what I mean by that is he sees us and he can see through us.
[00:14:57] I remember hearing, you know, in a relationship with your Wife. Someone has said that a husband can look at his wife and not see her.
[00:15:04] A wife can see through her husband without looking at him.
[00:15:08] That's true. And when you think about our Heavenly Father, our Heavenly Father not only sees us, he sees through us. And so the psalmist was pointing this out. Our Designer has us in his heart. He has us on his mind. God knows me. Here's the second thought. Verses 5 and 6, God is with me.
[00:15:26] God is with me. Listen to this. You have hedged me behind, and before you have laid your hand upon me. When you look down in those verses, death can't hide me. Verses 7 and 8, distance can't hide me. Verses 9 and 10, darkness can't hide me. Verse 12. He says, in fact, in that context, where do I go to flee from your presence? If I go to the stars, you're there. If I could descend into hell, that you're there. There's no place you can go that God isn't already there.
[00:15:55] And the psalmist was wrapping his head around the fact that we have a designer who knows us. We have a designer who is with us. The third thought I got from studying that chapter is in verses 13, down through verse 16. And that is this idea. God has a purpose for me.
[00:16:13] In fact, he said, you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb long before my mother ever gave birth to me. God knew me. He saw as I was being formed in that womb. He saw design. And he knew me before I even discovered America. Someone said, now, if you knew half of what's going on inside of you, you'd be afraid to move.
[00:16:36] And God has this ability to see the things that are going on inside of us. He knows all about us. He knows before we were born, and he has a purpose for our life.
[00:16:46] And then the fourth thing I picked up when you talk about connecting with your designer is this idea. God constantly thinks of me. You're in his heart. You're on his mind. Look down. Psalm 139, verses 17 and 18. Listen. How precious are your thoughts toward me. Oh, God. David really was overwhelmed. He really got his head around this idea that I have a designer. I have a creator who loves me, who. Who has a plan and a purpose for me. He sees me. He sees through me. He's aware of everything that I'm going through and everything that I've been through. And I'm suggesting if you live a life that matters, the first thing you have to do is be connected with your designer. So you have your Design your designer, rather. Here's number two. You have your desire.
[00:17:32] Your desire. If you're going to live a life that matters, it involves having a dream, having a goal, having some ambition. I think about the best example of this is young David. I'm sorry, young Joseph. Back in the Old Testament, in fact, when you study the life of Joseph, his life begins. The Bible speaks of it in Genesis 37, verses 5 and 6. And it opens with these words, Joseph had a dream. Joseph had a dream. In other words, Joseph had this idea that God had a plan for his life. And. And God placed this goal in front of him, this ambition in front of him, this beautiful dream in front of him. And I'm telling you, one of the things that keep you young is keep. Is your dream.
[00:18:16] The thing that you envision, your vision for your life. And having a connection with the designer, followed by having an understanding of your dream and the desire of your heart is so significant.
[00:18:28] And I can tell you guys, we were born dreamers. You remember when you were a kid. Guys, I'm gonna speak to the men. You remember when we were kids and we were. Some of you ladies may have had this experience too when you were shooting hoops at a friend's house. Or maybe you had the basketball goal in the driveway and you're shooting hoops and maybe you're out there by yourself and you're just having a great time. You remember what we would always do? We would always imagine ourselves in the NBA championship game.
[00:18:58] How many of you guys had that dream when you're shooting?
[00:19:01] Some of you guys are boring kids. But anyway, most of us had that dream. You're killing my illustration here.
[00:19:10] But so we're shooting and here's what happened if you had that dream. I had that dream. Here's what happened. I mean, all of a sudden you're in the NBA championship game and the clock is counting down.
[00:19:20] And I don't know how you always started at 10, but we did, and we started the clock countdown at 10. And all of a sudden, man, you wait till 1 and you shoot that ball at 1 and you miss.
[00:19:32] Remember missing? Miss a lot.
[00:19:36] What did you do when you missed? What did you do when you missed?
[00:19:40] Thank you. You reset the clock.
[00:19:44] There's not a guy in the room that went in the house with a ball under his arm and said, I'm such a loser, I can't even beat myself. This is terrible.
[00:19:54] No, man, you reset the clock. You kept shooting till you win.
[00:19:58] Why? Because you're a dreamer. You had a dream you had a goal, you had ambition. That's one of the things that kept you young. That was one of the fun things about being around kids is you're hearing their heart and you're hearing their desire and you're hearing the things that they want to do and the things that they.
[00:20:15] That they endeavor to do.
[00:20:17] Now, what happens to us as we get older is sometimes we have those dreams shattered, and sometimes the dreams don't develop the way they should. And as you get older, if you aren't careful, you stop dreaming and you just say, well, I don't guess it's going to happen for me. I, you know, I. I guess I'm. I'm never going to be Superman. So I just. My life, you know, or whatever, you know, you begin to stop dreaming because the dreams haven't come to fruition, and you develop a mindset. And the mindset that you begin to develop is, it just won't happen to me.
[00:20:52] For me, it's just not going to work out the way that I thought it would. And you start settling for less than God's very best for your life, and you develop that mindset.
[00:21:03] And I'll tell you this morning, mindsets are. They're hard to break.
[00:21:06] That's why they're called mindsets. You get set in a way of thinking, and I'm just suggesting to you this morning that living a life that matters and living a life that makes a difference, not only does it involve my designer, but involves my desire.
[00:21:22] I mean, the Bible says if someone desires the office of a bishop, they desire a good thing. Joseph was a dreamer.
[00:21:29] God honors the dreamers.
[00:21:32] He honors people who say, I wanna set some goals and I have some ambition, and there's some things I'd love to see accomplished in my. In my life. There's some things that I really hope I can do with my life. And look, if the dream falls apart, dream a new dream, reset the clock.
[00:21:47] You did that when you were a kid. Why can't you do it now?
[00:21:51] Okay, so you didn't go. So you didn't win the NBA championship game. So that didn't work out. You're not gonna be Superman. That didn't work out. Dream a new dream, reset the clock.
[00:22:01] So I'm just saying, when you begin to piece this together and you begin to look at a life that matters, and in leaving a legacy and preaching a funeral as you live, you understand it involves my designer and it involves my desire. Here's the third thought I'd give you. It involves my Design.
[00:22:18] Sometimes the dream and the desire doesn't come to fruition. Cause it didn't fit design.
[00:22:24] I said, we have a designer. And that is obviously it implicates. Then there has to be a design. God has a certain design for our life. There's certain things he has created us to do. And once you have found how you fit and you find that unique thing God has designed you to do, you begin to understand your purpose in life.
[00:22:45] Someone said, failure is to succeed at the wrong thing.
[00:22:50] Failure is to succeed at the wrong thing.
[00:22:53] God has a purpose for your life. He has a plan for your life. He has something for you to do.
[00:22:59] It begins with connecting with Him. But listen, he not only saved us from something, he saved us for something.
[00:23:07] That's why when Jesus talked to Nicodemus about this experience with God, he said, you must be born again. Everything begins with the birth.
[00:23:16] Salvation isn't the end of the spiritual and life experience. It's the beginning.
[00:23:21] He saved me from sin, and he saved me from my past, and he saved me from hell. But he saved me for purpose.
[00:23:29] So I have to begin to think about it. Okay, I've got the connection with my designer. What is my dream?
[00:23:35] What is it I would love to do? What would I love to achieve in my life? Okay, now, third thing. How does it fit with how God's designed me?
[00:23:44] Does this dream and desire, does it fit with my design? Because that's understanding really who I am.
[00:23:51] Let me give you some things that you can test yourself on.
[00:23:56] Number one, you have to ask yourself, can God receive glory through what I want to do? Because the Bible says in First Corinthians 10:31, Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So the first thing I would say is, God has created me to bring him glory.
[00:24:12] That's the purpose in him creating us, to have fellowship with us. What does it mean to give him glory? Well, I've given this to you before. Let me give it to you again. Glory could be defined as everything that God is. That's a good definition for the word glory. Everything that God is.
[00:24:29] So when he says in Ephesians to him be glory in the church, what Paul is praying is that everything that God is will be seen within the church. Okay, let's break that down to us personally. When I bring him glory or you bring him glory, that means everything that he is is being reflected through my life.
[00:24:48] So if I wanna line up my desire with my design, then I have to ask myself, is what I am trying to do something that Ultimately brings God glory. Can he be seen through this? Second thing to ask yourself, is it consistent with my gifts, with my personality and my temperament?
[00:25:08] I mean, am I doing something that's not consistent with those things? We use the expression a fish in a tree for a reason.
[00:25:15] We're trying to do something we weren't really designed to do. And some people are in careers and they're in pursuits that they're miserable because they're not doing something that fits with their gifts and their temperaments and their calling. So at some point you have to stop and ask yourself, is this really where I'm trying to go? You know, sometimes you have to say, where am I going to be when I get where I'm going and I have to slow my roll and say, is this the life I feel God has called me to do? Does it fit with my dream and. And does it fit with this, my design? Here's the third thing to ask yourself. Does it require faith in order to achieve it?
[00:25:51] Does it require faith in order to achieve it? In other words, is my dream and my desire something that only God can help it bring to come to fruition?
[00:26:01] Am I involving God at some point along the way? Because the Bible says whatsoever is not of faith is sin. So for a child of God, anything you endeavor to do, if you start a business, if you go into a new career, you start a new relationship, then you have to ask myself. You have to ask yourself, is this something that I need God's guidance in and I need his direction in? And if you can't answer that in the affirmative, then you have to question, am I doing the thing God's called me to do? Because anything God's calling his kids to do will require faith in order to achieve it. So that's a good question to ask yourself. Here's a fourth question to say. Does it instill passion in me?
[00:26:38] Does it instill passion in me? Is it something that I'm motivated of getting up tomorrow morning to go do? Right. Like that French philosopher said, I've got so much to do today, I'm just going back to bed.
[00:26:50] Terrible way to live life.
[00:26:52] Instead of waking up saying, good morning, Lord, you wake up and say, good Lord, it's morning.
[00:26:58] And that's not to say you're just going to wake up every morning with this skippity doo dah attitude about life. But I am simply saying that if you're doing the thing God has called you to do, and if that desire is connecting with the design, then it will bring passion in you. And God will give you passion about the thing he's called you to do. Here's the fifth one I would give you to check this.
[00:27:19] I would ask myself this question. Has it been affirmed by other people?
[00:27:24] Has it been affirmed by other people? Now, you're not looking for consensus. You're looking for confirmation. Your mother will give you consensus. Yeah. Hercules. Hercules.
[00:27:37] Here's a trophy. You know what I do, Mom? Nothing. But be my boy. That's all you need.
[00:27:43] So that's not what you're looking for. That's wonderful, and that's affirming, and I love Mama for it, but that's not what you're driving for.
[00:27:50] You're looking for confirmation.
[00:27:52] You want somebody to look at you and say, you're good at that.
[00:27:56] Wow. You handled that well. You do that well. You've handled them well. You. You do what you do wonderfully.
[00:28:03] It's confirmation. And I'm saying, man, when you begin to line all that up, you start saying, wow. I think I'm having a little epiphany here. I think I have discovered my design. I think I found the thing God has called me to do in life, whatever that field of endeavor might be, and it's important. I was talking to the guys about this in the green room. I said, if you don't really know what you're designed to do. For example, if you don't know a lawnmower is designed to cut grass, you might use it as a ceiling fan.
[00:28:33] Now, you probably won't. But I'm just saying everything has a certain design.
[00:28:38] Everything has a certain purpose. And if I'm gonna live a life that matters, I have to understand that when young David was going out to face Goliath, you remember the story in 1st Samuel 17, Saul wanted to put his armor on David.
[00:28:54] You remember how David tried to wear Saul's armor? And the image I always get of this young teenage boy. Saul was a big man. And seeing young David just swallowed up by Saul's armor, you almost see the sleeves are, like this long, you know, and he puts on his helmet that he's used in battle, and he just turns his head, and he's looking out of the ear hole. All of a sudden, you know, I mean, it's just. It's not working. It's just not working. And David finally just said, I haven't. And I love it. In the King James, he said, I haven't proven this equipment. In other words, I haven't tested it. It doesn't work for me.
[00:29:31] I Can't go out and tackle this guy and fight this guy in the equipment that doesn't belong to me. Meaning David understood God had uniquely gifted him. He had uniquely equipped him. And what he was doing in someone else's life was. Would not suffice. What he wanted to do in his life.
[00:29:49] David was discovering his design.
[00:29:52] God had designed him in a unique way.
[00:29:56] And then that ultimate leads to my fourth thought before we go this morning. And that involves my destiny.
[00:30:03] That involves my destiny. That involves me achieving the thing God has placed on this earth for me to achieve.
[00:30:10] Now, I'll tell you when you begin to move into that direction and you begin to really find. Find purpose in life and you begin to walk in that purpose, I can tell you one of the things that are gonna be inevitable and even inescapable is going to be opposition.
[00:30:25] You're gonna run into headwinds. Remember what happened. I'll go back to my story of young Joseph, who had the dream. You remember, man, when you read his story, it took him 23 years after he dreamed the dream to achieve that dream. 23 years.
[00:30:41] And, man, what about heartaches and hardships and difficulty all along the way?
[00:30:45] Think about the betrayals that he faced in his life. His own brothers wanted to kill him.
[00:30:51] I mean, nobody believed in him.
[00:30:54] But Joseph didn't allow any of those things to deter him. He stayed focused on what he knew God had called him to do. And I'm just saying that when you begin to dial in and you begin to get in touch with God's purpose for your life, don't. Don't be surprised if you don't have some people that'll raid on your parade.
[00:31:14] Don't be surprised if you aren't gonna have some people who will not affirm you and make you feel worse because you took time to even share what's happening in your life with them.
[00:31:23] Have you ever had that experience when you thought somebody was gonna be happy for you and they weren't?
[00:31:29] Hey, we just bought a new house. Well, good for you.
[00:31:32] Glad somebody's got a new house.
[00:31:37] You know, I didn't even tell him that, you know, I got a raise. Oh, wow, somebody got a raise.
[00:31:44] Hey, I closed the sale.
[00:31:46] Well, that's good for you.
[00:31:48] And you're like, why did I even say anything?
[00:31:52] Well, David, one of the biggest mistakes he made was he thought he was telling the people that would be most encouraging to him, his own brothers. And they poured cold water over him. And as I said, moment they wanted to kill him, I'M just suggesting. Don't let that discourage you. I've told you before. When Paul said, there's a great and effectual door open to me, then he said, there are many adversaries. I told you, the principle of that verse is doors of opportunity will often swing on hinges of opposition.
[00:32:18] You know you're running with the Lord when you're running into the devil.
[00:32:23] And so I'm just suggesting that you gotta fight through that. And you can't let that discourage you. And you can't let that disappoint you. I read where Samuel Morse.
[00:32:32] Morse appeared before the 27th Congress and asked for $30,000 to implement an experimental telegraph wire between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. And he was laughed and scorned because he had that idea.
[00:32:48] I read another story where McCroney told his friends that he had discovered a way to send messages through the air without wires or any other physical means. And his friends had him taken into custody and placed in a psychiatric ward.
[00:33:03] Says friends, I'm just saying, sometimes, guys, whenever you're moving in that zone. And you're moving in the area of your purpose, and you have a dream and God is affirming it, sometimes people will oppose it.
[00:33:17] We're all familiar with the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. And his dream was challenged with violence from without, with threats from within. And listen, it was over 10 years before the passage of the Voting Rights act in 1968.
[00:33:31] He held onto that dream.
[00:33:33] Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness taking care of sheep before he ever delivered Israel from Egypt.
[00:33:41] I mentioned David. David was anointed king. But listen, he had to run for his life for 20 years in the wilderness before he ever took the throne.
[00:33:51] There's no such thing as overnight successes.
[00:33:55] You have to follow the path God has given you. And you have to be true to the purpose that he's called you to. And there's going to be adversity.
[00:34:02] Let that again discourage you. Don't let it deter you. Don't let it diminish you. You just say, God's called me to this, and he's going to see to it that I achieve it. And he will.
[00:34:13] Mark Twain said, 20 years from now, you'll be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things that you did do.
[00:34:20] So he said, dream, explore and discover. What a great challenge.
[00:34:27] I read where a mom was putting her kids to bed one night.
[00:34:31] She told her son, she said, jimmy, go upstairs and go to bed. It's time to go to bed. I'll come up and check on you in a little while.
[00:34:37] So after a bit, she went up to check on her son Jimmy.
[00:34:41] And she found him sitting on the side of the bed, looking out at the window, staring out into the space.
[00:34:47] Said, jimmy, son, you should be asleep by now, you have school tomorrow. She said, what are you doing?
[00:34:53] He said, I'm looking at the moon.
[00:34:54] She said, well, honey, I don't care. You need to go to bed. You gotta get up early in the morning. And he says, ma, one day I'm gonna walk on that moon.
[00:35:02] And she goes, oh, honey, that's sweet. Go to bed.
[00:35:06] 32 years later, James Urban became only one of 12 other human beings to ever put his foot on the face of the moon, true to his dream.
[00:35:17] I'm just suggesting you guys, when God pours something in your heart, he has something for you to do. Listen, you are immortal until you complete it.
[00:35:26] Ecclesiastes 3. To everything there's a season and a time to purpose that he gives us under heaven. As long as you have purpose, God will give you time. Regardless of the season you find yourself in. It may be a great season this morning, and I hope it is.
[00:35:40] It may be a hard season this morning you'll get through.
[00:35:44] May be a season of great blessing in your life. It may be a season of some of the greatest tests that you've ever gone through in your life. Let me tell you something. Seasons come, seasons go. But you're immortal until he's finished with you.
[00:35:56] Because you have purpose, you matter, you make a difference.
[00:36:01] There's something that you and you alone can do. And I'm just saying, man, when I connect with my designer and I understand my desire and I began to plant that with my design, I began to discover truly my destiny and can I finish where I started.
[00:36:19] The success of life is not measured by the years of a life, but by the impact that that life made on other lives.
[00:36:30] Tomorrow morning I'll do another memorial service for a precious lady. She and her family are part of our church. Brittany Elliott, maybe you know the family, Spencer's a coach, and Keller, maybe you saw the news reports of about two weeks ago where they were hit head on by a drunk driver out on Boat Club Road.
[00:36:50] And Brittany was killed on impact.
[00:36:53] Spencer was seriously injured, both arms broken, sternum crushed. 12 year old daughter in the car was hospitalized.
[00:37:03] And tomorrow morning, as I said, I'll do Brittany's memorial service.
[00:37:08] She leaves behind a loving family, a grieving husband, a 17 year old daughter, a 12 year old daughter, a 9 year old son.
[00:37:20] And I hope you pray that I can find some words to share that will help bring some comfort to this family. It's not the words that I share. It's the work of the Holy Spirit that can bring comfort to this family. But I say all that to say this. Her life mattered.
[00:37:36] She made a difference gone far too soon.
[00:37:39] That's only in the hands of God.
[00:37:42] But what an impact Brittany's life made in the lives of the people who knew her, who loved her, and especially in her family.
[00:37:51] We're not promised tomorrow. We don't know how long we're going to be here. As I said a moment ago, we're all preaching our funerals while we live.
[00:38:01] Would you join with me in striving to say, God, from this day forward, I want my life to matter.
[00:38:07] I want to love you as you love me.
[00:38:09] I want to love other people.
[00:38:11] I want to make a difference.
[00:38:13] I want to wake up every day and realize my life is a gift from God. Today, what can I do to help somebody in their path, somebody in their journey, to bring them closer to God, to encourage them? You never know what a difference your life may make in the life of somebody else that's living a life that matters. Let's pray.
[00:38:33] Lord Jesus, I thank youk for your word.
[00:38:36] Thank youk for the opportunity we have to open it and read it and understand it and comprehend it and allow it, Father, to speak into our life.
[00:38:46] The most significant thing we could ever hear is to hear your Word.
[00:38:51] So, Father, help us now to not just be mere hearers of it, but to be doers of it, to apply the things that you've spoken into our hearts today from the message and from the worship that will make a difference.
[00:39:04] I pray for my friends, maybe in this room or watching online, who've never trusted you as Savior, that this might be the moment when they humble their heart and say, lord Jesus, I invite you into my life.
[00:39:17] I want to connect with my creator. I want to know my designer.
[00:39:21] I want to know the one who knows me and the one who loves me. I want to know him. And so now, Father, with all that is in me and with all that I know about me, I trust all that I know about you come into my heart.
[00:39:34] Forgive my sin.
[00:39:36] Be a reality in my life.
[00:39:39] And, Father, I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
