Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is naive. And you've reached the Mosaic Church podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community, and I'd love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there, and there's more opportunities for you to get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast if you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity, and I'd love for you to pay it forward.
[00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you and enjoy.
[00:00:58] Good morning.
[00:01:00] Hello. Hello.
[00:01:03] Hey, really quick, before we get into it, because we are in a series called Pick aside. Before we get into that topic today, how many of you would dare admit that when it comes to certain things, you're a little bougie?
[00:01:15] Come on. Come on. Anybody? Anybody? You are a little bougie when it comes to stuff, right? The good thing is you weren't born bougie.
[00:01:23] You were made bougie. You were made bougie. Okay, here's. Here's. Here's something. I realized that I am bougie. I am. When it comes to certain things, I be bougie. Yeah, people had. Yeah. Recently, I was in Tampa Bay in Florida at an event, and I was. I was. You know, when I first started speaking, I like different places, you know, and. And I get to do that. When I first started, I was not bougie. I was like. I was just grateful to go anywhere. You know what I'm saying? I would pay you money for you to come and ask me to come pray, you know, do anything for you. I mean, when I first started off, I was like, I didn't care if I had to, like, hike there. I didn't care. Now I'm like, what kind of ticket are you paying for? What? What? You know, where. Where are you putting me up? Where you putting me up? Where are we going to eat? You know, all of a sudden, I can get a little judgy, and guess what? Your boy's getting a little.
[00:02:17] A little bougie. And I was like, what? It's not my fault. It's not my fault, right? You guys can sympathize.
[00:02:25] No, no, you Guys are awful people, you know? No, no, but here's the truth. The truth is, is that we do. We like stuff to be comfortable. Nice. So today we're gonna pick a side and we're gonna have team. Team. Let's put it up. We're gonna, Gonna put team comfort.
[00:02:40] Wow. One person.
[00:02:42] One person. Yeah, yeah. Or team purpose.
[00:02:47] Yeah, yeah. No one. You're like, let's talk about something else.
[00:02:51] Cause the truth is you're like, name. Can I have both?
[00:02:56] Can I have both? And I get it, I get it. But at some point we're gonna have to pick. We're gonna have to pick a side because you tend to want to live a life of, of purpose. We all do. We want our lives to count. We want our lives to have meaning and for them, for it to matter. But, but, but, but, but comfort is really nice, you know? I mean, comfort, comfort plus in airplanes is great. You got more leg room. You know what I'm saying? Comfort is nice in so many different ways. But the reality is that sometimes when we pursue comfort, I mean, if that's our biggest thing, live a life of, like, ease. Live a life of comfort, Live a life of, you know, just, just, just everything taking care of us ease, you know, all the pleasure, like, all the good stuff we have, the pursuit of that in one sense, the pursuit of happiness. Like, we just want everything to be awesome all the time. When you pursue that, it's very hard to pursue comfort and then live a life and still live a life of purpose. But, but, but you could, you could live a life of purpose and in that, find deep satisfaction and, and deep fulfillment in life. And so today I want you to pick a side. Even though everything about us will wanna pick the side of comfort, I want you to pick the side of purpose. And my question to you is, is your life, are you living a life of purpose? And it's a tough, tough, tough conversation to have. In fact, it's very interesting because it's one of those that you cannot avoid because at some point in our lives, we're gonna get to a point where we're gonna be like, I don't know if my life really matters, if all the things I'm doing really, really does matter. Let me read you a first passage in Scriptures here. It's in the book of Ecclesiastes. And if you want to follow along, it's in the app. But this book is written by King Solomon. And this guy was born into privilege, born into power. He was the king. He had all the Things in the world. In fact, biblical history tells us that this guy had more wealth than, I mean, a lot in his generation, or he was one of the richest kings in ancient Jewish history. And he writes a couple of things. And he actually, if you read his stuff, especially this particular book, he gets a little down. He gets really depressed. And that's why you wonder. You're like, dude, you got all the money in the world. Why are you not happy?
[00:05:15] And it points to the human dilemma. So here's what he writes. He says this. He said at one point, I denied myself to nothing. My eyes, what desired. Help me out, right? He says, I refused my heart. What?
[00:05:30] No pleasure. Can you get to a point where you can. Like, I can afford anything.
[00:05:35] I can do anything I want to. I can have everything. And in fact, the chapter goes into depth of, like, all the things he accumulated, all the things that he'd done. He's like, I just went out on a quest and I want to fulfill every pleasure I had. And this guy was. Went all out on every relationships. He had so many concubines. He had so many real estate. He had lands he conquered. I mean, he had so much wealth. So much wealth.
[00:06:02] He said, my heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for my toil. Basically, it's like my heart took delight. I had this moment of like, wow, this is awesome. And yet. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve and everything, I realized everything. Everything. What's that word? Was what?
[00:06:24] Meaningless.
[00:06:25] Meaningless. Since, like, it was like chasing after the.
[00:06:29] The wind. It's like, I don't know, gained nothing. Gained nothing under the sun. In fact, this whole chapter is all about. His whole thesis is Everything is Meaningless.
[00:06:40] He's like. He becomes the most cynical guy in this chapter. He's perfect for. For a roommate to have. You know what I'm saying? Just cynical.
[00:06:48] He's like, everything is meaningless. Everything we do. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. He's pointing to the idea that you and I are wired to have meaning in our lives. Wired to live a life that's not always comfortable, not always perfect, not always around luxury. But we're meant to be satisfied with purpose and meaning, deep connection in our life. I'm actually going through a book right now called the Meaning of youf Life. It's by a guy named Arthur Brooks, and he's a Harvard professor.
[00:07:17] Just brilliant guy. Highly recommend the book the Meaning of youf Life. Okay, great book.
[00:07:24] It's a little bit to get, get through it because it asks you really hard questions, but man, does it point to a lot of things. And some of the things that he talks about are just fascinating. But in particular, what he talks about is like, when it comes to high achievers and if you're a high achiever, if you're like, man, I wanna get things done, I got a plan for my life. I got a five year plan for. I got a five year plan for my family too. Like, I got plans for everybody. God has a plan for you. And so do I. You know what I'm saying? Like, you are a high achiever.
[00:07:56] You love a goal. You love a goal. And what he talks about is like, high achievers actually find themselves very empty in life because what they do is they are so good at achieving them. And once they achieve them, they're empty.
[00:08:11] The idea of, like arriving, you know, I have arrived doesn't exist. It does not exist with high achievers. It does not. That's why you can just keep on doing whatever and you get better and better and better and better. And you have all these trophies and all these experiences and all these gold and all these accolades, but the end of life. You're like, but I live empty lives. He says, that's a problem. And what we do is we end up trying to just distract ourselves by other things. And it's sometimes more goals. He says, then they're. They're not high achievers, but they're people who have high anxiety. And there are people who have just high anxiety. You're just. I don't know if you were born with it, but you just kind of have that. You're always just kind of nervous about all kinds of things. And you're just. You have, you deal with high anxiety and there, what happens is high anxiety people, what they end up doing is they end up trying to.
[00:09:01] They just try to manage. Manage their anxiety by hobbits.
[00:09:06] Hobbits. No.
[00:09:07] Yeah, Hobbits scientifically have no. No hobbies.
[00:09:13] Hobbies. I actually wanted to say habits and hobbies. I just said hobbits.
[00:09:20] And they do stress.
[00:09:24] And I get it. I get it. I've been through different seasons in my life. I've been high stressed. And guess what I want to do? I just want to create some habits, just do some hobbies. Hobbies. What I'm trying to do is just kind of just ease the pain, manage the anxiety, bring all the stress down. You guys know this. You, we do this. But you End up living a life of comfort and not necessarily on purpose when you do that. And then there are some who are not highest stressors or high performers. You're just bored.
[00:09:50] You're highly bored in life because of your job, because of what you do, because of where you are in the season of health life. You're just bored. And you're like, I don't. Am I bored? Yeah, because you just. Honestly, you're on your phone all the time.
[00:10:03] And he talks about it. He talks about the addiction that we have as not just the western world, but the world.
[00:10:11] Social media, and especially our smartphones have taken over. It is the number one addiction. And you're like, oh, it's not addiction because everybody's doing it.
[00:10:20] It's not addiction. It's not a problem when everybody's doing it. But next time, just anywhere, just stop and look around. The amount of people who are on your phones even now.
[00:10:30] No, there's just. You are. When's the last time you went to the bathroom without your phone?
[00:10:35] Wow. Was there a time like that? Yes. The 1800s. Yeah. Yeah. People went, did that, did that. It's, it's. It's. Why? Because we're just highly. We're masking something. What are we masking?
[00:10:46] Emptiness.
[00:10:48] Meaningless. That's why we believe the lie. You don't matter because deep down you have not done the work and I have not done the work to find out why my life matters. Oh, you've heard it. The preacher says it. People say it, you matter. You have meaning. You matter. But you haven't answered the question, why?
[00:11:06] Why do I matter? What am I doing that is meaningful in life? Or am I just chasing after an ease, comfort, luxury, whatever to ease whatever pain, boredom, or goal I want to achieve. So what I want to do, I want to take a life of John the Baptist. And John the Baptist is pretty interesting, but his life, like in passages I'm going to show you, is interesting because we find a guy who the scriptures don't talk a lot about in terms of how he felt and thought.
[00:11:36] Like with Jesus, you know, and some of the other disciples we know, okay, he felt this, he cried about that, he talked about this, yada, yada. He thought this. John, you don't hear a lot. All you do, though.
[00:11:48] You do.
[00:11:49] We do read.
[00:11:50] His life was very meaningful. Like he lived life on. Like he was on a mission on purpose. He lived a life with it and it was transformed by it. And there's a lot of things he did, like the actions, but not Necessarily the thought process. So the question I'm gonna be asking as we go through this, what was John thinking as he accomplished these things? Because we just know what. What he accomplished. So let's jump in. We jump in right in the beginning, and we talk about before he was actually born. I mean, this guy had a sense of destiny before he was born. Here's why. John, if you don't know, John's the cousin of Jesus. Jesus, right. When Mary found out about her being pregnant, who told her? Anybody know?
[00:12:37] An angel. Right. If you know, if you've been through Christmas, you know the story. Okay? Right. An angel told her angel for extra credit. You know the angel's name?
[00:12:46] Gabriel. Yes, Gabriel. Gabriel's the guy who went and said, hey, Mary, guess what? Ha ha, you pregnant.
[00:12:55] But Gabriel actually stopped somewhere else, too.
[00:12:59] John's mom, Elizabeth, and her husband Zechariah, they were visited by Gabriel as well. We don't know. We don't talk about it. But, yeah, he showed up at their house and said, hey, by the way, Elizabeth, you're gonna have a baby as well. And, yeah, he's gonna prepare the way for Jesus. He's got destiny written all over him. And so here's the encounter.
[00:13:25] Zechariah, who's the dad, right? The dad said to the angel after they heard this, he says, what proof is there for this?
[00:13:33] What, you want to debate with an angel? Okay, okay. Then he says this. He says, number one, I am an old man.
[00:13:40] Look at me and my wife.
[00:13:44] I'm just saying.
[00:13:46] I'm just saying, she is.
[00:13:48] How do we put it? She is beyond her childbearing years, mentally and physically. You know what I'm saying? She done, we're done. It's not happening. And then this is surprising, because this is why I wanted to put this passage in here, because I don't know if you've ever read this. Then the angel said to him. He. He said this with an attitude. This is an attitude.
[00:14:09] He just ticked off an angel. He said this. I am what?
[00:14:14] I'm Gabriel, bro.
[00:14:15] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm the main man.
[00:14:19] I'm the guy.
[00:14:20] And then he says this. I what? I stand in God's presence like I'm a big deal. You want to debate with me?
[00:14:30] You don't think this is going to be. This is going to happen. And he says, God, God, God, God. God sent me to tell you this. What, good news? But guess what? You don't think it's good news, Right? I'll tell you what and because you didn't believe what I said, you will be, what?
[00:14:46] Unable to talk until the day this happens, to which Elizabeth was like, nine months. He's not talking. Thank you, Jesus.
[00:14:58] What?
[00:14:59] He ticked off an angel. Gabriel's like, oh, yeah, you don't think I can. You're not talking anymore.
[00:15:04] You're not talking anymore. He didn't talk, but. And he says, everything will come true. At this point, obviously, John's not in the picture, but can. You can sense, like, his parents was like, oh, our kid. This John is gonna be special. He's got purpose in his life. He's got. I mean, I don't even know if he likes it or not, but he's got it. He's got, got. He's got major purpose, major meaning in his life. This guy matters, Matters, matters, matters.
[00:15:31] So what happens? Well, let's read the next passage. Next passage says that when the child. This is John, right? The child was eight years old. They went to the temple to circumcise him, which they would do. They were going to name him. What? They were going to name him what?
[00:15:46] Zechariah, after his dad. Which is. Which is a very Middle Eastern thing to do.
[00:15:50] But his mother spoke up. Why did his mom speak up?
[00:15:55] Because dad can't talk.
[00:15:57] Dad can't talk. And she says, absolutely not. His name will be John. John. Their friend said to. But you don't have any relatives with that name, because that was a tradition.
[00:16:08] So they mentioned to the baby's father to see what he wanted to name the child.
[00:16:15] And what did Zechariah do?
[00:16:17] He asked for a writing tablet because guess what? He can't talk.
[00:16:22] Still not talking. I'm sure Gabriel's like, yeah, now what, bro?
[00:16:27] Yeah, it's not happening. It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. Yeah, baby's born, all that. Nothing. It's not happening. Okay. And then he took the tablet, right?
[00:16:37] And his name is John. That's what he wrote.
[00:16:41] Everyone was amazed. Suddenly, Zechariah was able to. What?
[00:16:45] Speak again? And he began to praise God. Obviously, you do that. And thanks. And thanks, Gabriel. And he says. And all neighbors were filled with awe. Throughout the mountain region of Judea, people talked about everything that had happened. Everyone who heard about it seriously did what?
[00:17:04] Thought about it over and asked, what does the future hold for what?
[00:17:11] This child.
[00:17:13] It was clear that the Lord was with him. Could you imagine the pressure growing up in that.
[00:17:21] Your neighborhood? Growing up. Neighborhood. You're John. You're John.
[00:17:26] Yeah, I'm John.
[00:17:27] Yeah, I'm John. Yeah, I'm John. You're the guy. You're the guy. See, we don't know this, but we know he grew up.
[00:17:34] We know he lived in a neighborhood. We know all that. We also know that he actually was, with his parents permission and all that, he was actually sent to become a Nazarite, which means he didn't cut his hair, he couldn't have alcohol. There's no weekends for him. He couldn't do any of that. He was, like, dedicated to the temple. And then he had a purpose. He was reading the scriptures, he was learning the Torah. He was doing all the things he was getting himself prepared to do what he was meant to do his whole life. And my question is, at one point, did John not go, hey, hey, do I get a choice in this?
[00:18:11] Do I get a choice in this? Or is it just predestined?
[00:18:16] Is it? I don't know. But I do know is what he did.
[00:18:21] He had conversations with himself, I'm sure. I'm sure. But I don't know what he did.
[00:18:27] And then this is what happens. Then they grow up. They're growing up. And obviously there's about a year or so apart from Jesus. And John in his 20s. And in his 20s, he starts living in the desert, and he begins being this prophet who's this wild man in the desert talking about the kingdom of God. And he's doing that. And there he's got disciples coming, the people who become his disciples. And then he's baptizing them. He's doing all this stuff. Meanwhile, his cousin Jesus in his 20s is doing what?
[00:18:59] Nothing like that.
[00:19:01] He's not in the desert.
[00:19:04] Jesus is, like, doing the carpentry stuff. He's like, I'm making stuff, going to weddings. You know, I'm doing that. He's not doing anything because Jesus didn't start, like, telling people who he was till he hit 30.
[00:19:17] So for his 20s, he didn't do anything. John's been in the desert preparing the way.
[00:19:24] And so I wonder if ever there was an issue. And then Jesus in his 30s, all of a sudden goes, okay, he starts doing miracles.
[00:19:34] He does it. He goes and he goes, this is gonna happen. And John knew who Jesus was. Why? Because in Matthew 3:11. Let me just read this to you. He says to some of his disciples, he says, I baptize you with water so you can change the way you think and act. But the one who comes after me is going, is what is more. What powerful than I. I am. I'll Tell you what, I'm not worthy to what?
[00:19:58] Remove his sandals like I'm telling you. And at one point, he says to the crowd, looking at Jesus, he. He's. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In fact, he is the guy who baptized Jesus himself. So if anybody knew who Jesus was, it was who John. John knew. Why? Because he spent his whole life preparing the way on purpose. Making the choices, doing the things, Doing the things, Doing the doing. Doing the things. And then Jesus shows up after. After getting baptized and started doing all these miracles and starts picking disciples. And did he pick John?
[00:20:34] No, he didn't pick John.
[00:20:37] Why?
[00:20:39] He's been his cousin. He's been preparing the way. I mean, he's already qualified.
[00:20:44] No, he didn't pick John. In fact, there's no record of Jesus and John doing stuff together.
[00:20:50] What's going on?
[00:20:51] What is going on in John's mind?
[00:20:55] I thought. I thought, I'm preparing the way. And when I prepare the way, then we kind of. Kind of hold hands and we do stuff together. We're cousins, right?
[00:21:05] We're supposed to do this, right?
[00:21:08] Then that doesn't happen. And John one day gets.
[00:21:11] Gets locked up. He gets locked up by this guy, this.
[00:21:17] This ruler. And he. It's. It's bad. It's bad because it's a political situation going on. And John has said some things about his.
[00:21:28] What. He what? What? I guess that guy thought he shouldn't say. And he. He wanted him dead. And so he.
[00:21:36] He arrests John. And the goal he's trying to do, the goal is that he's going to try to either behead John or. Or put him in prison for his whole life.
[00:21:44] So John all of a sudden goes, you know what? I got this guy Jesus, who does all kinds of miracles. I'm going to send word to Jesus. And then he finds out that Jesus already knows that John is in jail, but Jesus is not doing anything about it.
[00:22:05] So now John's in jail, not doing anything about. John's in jail. Jesus is not doing anything about it. So John's like, I gotta send him a message. I gotta send him a message. Can't text the bro, right? No, can't do that. I want to send him a message. So he gets him some disciples and he tells them, hey, go. Go ask Jesus this. Go ask him this, okay? And this is. This is like, feel the emotion with this, right?
[00:22:28] He says, go ask Jesus.
[00:22:31] Are you the Messiah?
[00:22:33] Like, if you're gonna go to say this is Jesus, you're Like John, you told me he was the Messiah.
[00:22:38] No, no, go ask him. Are you the Messiah, or are we.
[00:22:42] That you've been expecting? Or should we. What, should we keep on looking?
[00:22:49] Now it seems like a little dig right there, right? Because you're like, he's the Lamb of God, Messiah. I just baptized him. Are you the guy?
[00:22:59] Like, you're kind of like, are you the guy? And I'm still here.
[00:23:02] Like, basically the whole time is like, why am I still in jail?
[00:23:07] He says, should we look for another? And then Jesus gets the message and he says, go tell John this. Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen.
[00:23:19] A life of purpose. He says, the blind, what? Help me out. The blind, what the lame and those with leprosy are.
[00:23:28] The deaf.
[00:23:29] The dead are.
[00:23:31] And the good news is being preached to the poor.
[00:23:34] He said, all the things that you've been working for your whole life, all the things you've been saying to people, all the things that you've been doing, you have lived, my friend, you have lived a deep, meaningful life. All the things that you said that the Messiah would do, I am doing. The only thing I'm not going to do, which is going to be really hard to hear, is I'm not going to come and save you.
[00:24:01] And then the guys leave to tell, you know, John what's happening, right?
[00:24:09] And he says.
[00:24:11] And then he added to them. He says, and tell John this. God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.
[00:24:21] Another translation says, blessed are youe, John, because you're not offended by me. See, sometimes God will do something, not show up in our lives in a certain way. And you don't want to admit it, but he has offended you.
[00:24:38] In fact, God will do certain things in your life that will make you fall away from Him. He says, blessed are those who don't fall away. Account of me not showing up. Not doing what you thought I was going to do. You're going to fall away from church, you're going to fall away from Christianity. You're going to fall away from your faith, you're going to fall away from friends, you're going to fall away from whatever because I did not show up. I just. Blessed are you that you're not gonna.
[00:25:05] You don't fall away because of me.
[00:25:08] So he says this. As John disciples were leaving, Jesus turns and basically looks to the crowd and he says this, and this is what I want you to know. This is interesting. He says, what kind of man did you go into the wilderness to See, he said, let me ask you something. What do you think? What kind of guy is John? And this is where we get into the thought process, the emotional part of who John is. He says, let me ask you something. Have you thought about it? What kind of guy were you expecting to see in the wilderness? Were you expecting to see a guy who was a weak reed swayed with every breath of wind?
[00:25:44] Were you expecting a guy who's going to be really precious?
[00:25:48] A weak guy?
[00:25:49] What do you think John was? And then he says, or, or. Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, because people with expensive clothes, they live in, what, palaces?
[00:26:03] Like, let me ask you, what do you think? What kind of guy is John?
[00:26:07] Now he's talking about John.
[00:26:10] Let me just say, what do you think? What kind of guy? He said, were you looking for a prophet? Yes, he is more than a prophet. John is the man to whom the scriptures refer to when they say, look, I'm sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before you. I tell you the truth. This is a huge compliment. He says, I tell you the truth of all who have ever lived, what none is. What, greater than John the Baptist?
[00:26:37] If you want to know a guy who's lived on mission, lived with purpose, has deep meaning, matters so much. The kingdom. It's John.
[00:26:45] It's John the Baptist. He lived a certain kind of life. Not a guy who's weak. Not a guy who's like. He wants comfort in life. No, no, he lives in the desert. He did all the hard things. He's kind of that kind of guy. He's. He is the greatest in the kingdom. And then. Then Jesus says, he says he makes room for us. He says, and. But you could access it too. You could live a life of purpose too. He says, and even yet. Even the what least each person in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.
[00:27:14] That means you and I can access life of purpose. But what that means is that we're gonna have to ask ourselves some really important things. So these are three things I wanna put up on there. Let's talk about them. You're gonna have to ask yourself a couple of things. Number one, you're gonna have to ask yourself hard questions. You're gonna have to make hard decisions. You're gonna commit to hard work. And I know you're like, oh, man, let's go. Team Comfort. Yay.
[00:27:38] But if you want to live a life of deep meaning, then you're going to have to ask yourself hard questions. You know, that the ability to ask questions is so, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a privilege actually. Like. So back in, back in the early 70s, I believe, there was a chimp, a gorilla actually named Coco. And they, this was extraordinary gorilla because she. Coco for 46 years growing up like early on day, like, you know, first year, the. Her trainer began teaching her sign language. And she was one who learned about a thousand to two thousand words to sign and could communicate with people. Like she, if you look it up, look her up online, she was like, wow, astounding.
[00:28:29] But in all those conversations, in all those years, one thing they notice is that Koko never asked questions.
[00:28:39] Other species that created don't sit around going, why do I exist?
[00:28:45] Why am I a cat?
[00:28:49] Why do I do this? How can I be a true giraffe? No one.
[00:28:55] They don't, they don't, they don't even, even, even, even Coco.
[00:29:01] They never had these deep questions. They could just communicate.
[00:29:05] You have a privilege of asking some really hard questions. But the questions would be, is, is like when. It is like, God, what do you. Okay, if I want to live a life of meaning, God, what do you.
[00:29:17] Help me, help me, help me understand some things.
[00:29:20] So a couple of questions. Number one would be, is, what's the definition of success to you?
[00:29:27] No, to you, you're like, oh, to God. No. Yes, to God. But to you, what is it? What is it? Because if you don't have a clear definition of success, you're just going to go after things that please, if you don't know, or you're gonna just chase something. Let me ask you this. If nothing changed in your life for the next five years, would you be okay with where you'd end up?
[00:29:53] Hard question.
[00:29:54] How about this one?
[00:29:56] What would you stop doing if you didn't have to impress anyone?
[00:30:03] What, you'd be out of a job. Like what? Like.
[00:30:08] That's a hard question to ask.
[00:30:10] Well, let me ask you this. This is a harder question, right? Asking God to help you with this. If you ask yourself a hard question like this, what am I afraid will happen if I slow down in life?
[00:30:29] Well, Nehemiah would never catch up to whoever I'm trying to catch up to. I won't.
[00:30:36] Hard questions. Because asking those hard questions will allow God's spirit to move you towards a life of purpose instead of a life of comfort. Asking hard questions, these are tough. And then these are just some of the questions. But you should take the time and go, okay, why am I Doing this.
[00:30:55] How about this? Making hard decisions. That's a tough one. You can ask the questions, but then after you know it, because people say, you know, the truth will set you free. Well, I think doing the truth helps you set you free. Like living out the truth set you free. Just knowledge doesn't change anything.
[00:31:12] No, I mean, Lang just makes you more knowledgeable.
[00:31:16] It's living out stuff. It's doing the things. It's not just asking, but it's making hard choices, doing the things. There's a famous poem. You could probably know it by Robert Frost. It might be the only poem I know. You know by Robert Frost. It. Loki is. It's the road less traveled.
[00:31:37] And we know it. Okay? Yeah. So here's one part of it, okay? So it says this. It says, let me make sure I don't mess it up. It says, two roads diverged in a wood, and I. And I took the one less traveled by.
[00:31:55] And that has made all the. What difference? You know what's interesting about this very widely known, celebrated, but also famously misinterpreted scripture in all of literature.
[00:32:11] Because when people quote that, they go, yes, and that's why you choose the road. Let's travel. When you look at a path, you choose the path, you forge the path, you go this way. The writer actually, this is the last line of his poem. What he's actually trying to say is there were two roads, that they were identical. And I just kind of took this one.
[00:32:30] And then I realized that this was. Then I realized after the fact that it was the road less traveled. And I'm so glad I did it.
[00:32:41] You see, he realized after the fact.
[00:32:45] We have to make decision before the fact.
[00:32:48] We have to decide before moving forward.
[00:32:53] Like, what is the hard thing you're going to do? And it is tough to do it. But only you can answer that. John had to do it for himself as well. And then lastly, commit to the hard work. Commit to the hard work. That's tough. Committing to anything is hard. Oh, my gosh.
[00:33:13] A diet, health plan, anything. Any financial health plan. Committing to anything. A process.
[00:33:21] Oh, my gosh. I don't like processes. I just like, you know, like, sometimes I'm like, just give me a pill. I don't want to process. You know what I'm saying? I just want to fix it. Just fix it. Just fix it. Just fix it. I got an injury. Just fix it.
[00:33:35] Rehab. I don't want rehab. I want you to what? Just fix it. Just do it. Just do it.
[00:33:41] The problem is living a life of meaning requires not just like, you know, asking and making, but it requires you committing to a path and walking down a path and moving forward deep and continuing to do it. It changes everything. You got to commit to it. You got to commit to it. Last week we were talking about volunteering at Mosaic and we asked you guys to volunteer if you could. And you guys, some of you guys did, and that's awesome. We actually need more volunteers, too. So if you missed that Sunday, if you're wondering, you want to jump in, we've got a place for you. We definitely need you, for sure.
[00:34:20] And we, you know, we do a lot of fun things with our volunteers. We're actually having like a team time. It's an event on Saturday, shortly, it's coming up, and we're going to celebrate together, have fun, talk about teamwork and all that, and get better at what we do. But on Sunday mornings, we do this like a huddle, like a team huddle. And, and we talk about all kinds of cool things. And sometimes I look around the huddle and there are people who are brand new because we celebrate brand new people. But then there are people who've been there for like 10 years, 15 years, some even 20 years. And I look at them going, you've been serving for 20 years. Aren't you tired? Like, you've been doing this for a long time.
[00:34:57] And at first I was like, man, you know, I'm so grateful. I'm so thankful that you're doing it. But I realized something, that actually they have it, they have done something and they're doing something.
[00:35:08] Choosing to volunteer, choosing to commit to doing something again and again. Especially volunteering actually benefits your own soul. In fact, there's a book called Mattering. And the author, Jennifer Wallace, talks about how do you live a life with deep connection and meaning? And she talks about volunteering. And she says scientifically, it's proven that people who volunteer, not at church, people who just volunteer to do anything for their neighbor, for a non profit, for church, whatever, to volunteer to help, have more fulfillment, satisfaction in life. In fact, they call it, researchers call it a helper's high.
[00:35:48] It's a helper's high. People who, like, I want to help. It's. You get a high from it, you get a sense of, like this, you get a sense of it. But. But it also allows them to feel like, because they can make the time, make the time, make the choices, make the time to volunteer. It gives them a sense of more control over their own schedule in their lives and so why am I saying this? Because when you and I commit to a process, commit to the right habits, commit to the right things to do, commit to, like, hey, I'm not gonna go back to my phone now. I'm not gonna do this. I'm gonna. When you commit to doing the hard work, you live a life of high enjoyment, high satisfaction, high fulfillment.
[00:36:32] But it does not come without hard work, hard decisions, and hard questions.
[00:36:39] You know, I wrote a book called Tomorrow Needs you came out last year, and it's a book about people coming out of trauma and all that. And.
[00:36:48] And. But the book is called Tomorrow Needs you because it's dedicated to my dad because my dad was convinced that no one needed him.
[00:36:58] So I wrote a book about that and just talked about people coming out of feelings of that. And regret is one of those things that I talk about in the book. And what I've realized is that when it comes to regret, it's not what we think it is. At the end of life, you're not going to regret the biggest mistakes you've made.
[00:37:19] You're going to regret the biggest steps you did not take at the end of life.
[00:37:25] My dad didn't regret all epic failures he had.
[00:37:29] He regretted the things he just did not do.
[00:37:32] And now he was too old to do.
[00:37:34] And so my prayer is this. Let's not live a life.
[00:37:43] I mean, I get it. We love comfort, we love bougie, but we gotta live a life of purpose. And that means asking God, partnering with him, asking hard questions, moving towards that.
[00:37:57] Hebrews 12 says this, and I love it. It says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us. What's that word?
[00:38:08] Let's put that up there.
[00:38:11] Let us.
[00:38:12] Let's go. Let us put that up there. Okay.
[00:38:16] Let us throw off what, everything that hinders, everything that hinders and the sin that easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith. He did it for the joy set before him. He endured the cross scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
[00:38:43] So let's live a life of purpose.
[00:38:46] Let's allow ourselves to be molded by him and see where God takes us. It might be uncertain, but it's worth it.
[00:38:56] Let me pray this over you. Can I do that? Let's stand together.
[00:39:05] Lord God, I just thank you so much for this morning. Thank you, God. That this. This conversation hits us in different places. God, for some of us, we. We know that we are.
[00:39:16] We are living a life.
[00:39:18] Purposeful, meaningful lives that are hard. And so I just pray for encouragement. Lord God, let us be reminded, God, that we have a cloud of witnesses. Let us remind us that people around us, even though they might not say it, they appreciate the process, the life that we have chosen to create.
[00:39:40] God, let us be encouraged by that.
[00:39:43] And for some of us, God, we. We find ourselves wondering. I don't know if I'm living a life of purpose, but God, it's not too late.
[00:39:50] It's not too late.
[00:39:52] So would you, God, would you help us understand?
[00:39:55] Be grateful for where we are, but move us to where you want us to go, God, you made us to have deep meaning, to live a life of purpose, to enjoy our lives.
[00:40:09] Not to be entertained, God, but God, to create.
[00:40:17] So God, speak to us as we respond.
[00:40:23] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
