now, I absolutely love sports and I love Playing basketball, which is my favorite. I I grew up playing basketball, played basketball throughout school, even played basketball in college, although it was a little bit more loose, I should say I was on the team in college and uh and I only really got in the game when we were about 20 points up for 20 points down, but but I loved playing the game and and so to keep myself interested in, you know, I would go really hard in practice, but as the season was moving on, I started realizing more and more that I probably wasn't going to get subbed in. And so with a couple of my buddies who were on the end of the bench besides coming up with awesome cheers for our teams when we would score, we would jokingly keep track of our stats during the warmup layup lines. And so when people would ask me how was the game, I'd be like awesome, I got another triple double and I used to know I was counting the baskets made in rebounds and assists I had before the game even started. Uh now some stats were hard to get in pregame like steals and blocks when it's your own team, but if you work hard enough, I believe hustle can get you the stats that you need. No. Now some of you are looking at me weird that it's weird to keep track of stats in pregame warmups and you would be correct, but here's my feeling is that in the game of life, when you consider all of eternity, if you consider the fact that we are created for eternity and that most of our life will be spent in eternity, then why is it that we put so much emphasis in the stats which might be seen as possessions and positions found here on earth. When really that's just pregame, why do we put so much value on what's done in this life? And we give so little thought of what's going to happen in the next. If you have notes, I want you just to draw a tiny little dot, a tiny little dot on your paper and I want you to compare that dot not just to the rest of your paper, but to the rest of the room. Now let's expand that even further and think about the distance from where you are right now to your home and now let's take that even further. And I want you to think back from this dot the distance from here, that dot on your paper to your childhood home because it's only in that comparison do we start to understand That 99.9999999, I can go on percent of your life is actually going to be spent in eternity. So why is it that we put so much emphasis on our stats and pre game and so little thought to where we're actually been created for eternity and where we're going to spend eternity and what that means, no matter what. Survey you look at or which philosophical study or research time and time again. When they ask people in different parts of the world, a different time periods throughout history. The most commonly asked questions in philosophy is what is the meaning of life Now? When you personalize that? When people are asking what is the meaning of life? What people are usually saying is what is the meaning of my life? In other words, what is my purpose? Why am I here? What am I supposed to do? Who am I supposed to be? And I want you to take home a reminder of that and then just think of that dot think of that spec and recognize that if most of our life is meant for the other side of eternity, then doesn't it make sense that they would take at least a moment, At least the next 40 days. And try to examine this question of why am I here? And what is my purpose this morning? The big idea, if you're taking notes that we're going to try to unpack the rest of the morning, is this is that discovering your purpose? It's not about meeting expectations, but experiencing jesus discovering your purpose, Why you were created. What you're called to do, discovering your purpose is not about meeting expectations but about experiencing jesus. You see expectations, focus on what others expect from you and of you. It's this idea that if you don't reach a certain level in life, somehow you fail. My kids love to play games on my phone. And so they play games and and they're all kind of the same to be honest. It's whether it's like Temple run or subway surfer or banana king or the other little cartoon versions where they're all chasing something, whether it's coins or fruit or whatever it is, and then they're always being chased after something. But the problem is no matter how long or how good you get at the game, the race never ends and as soon as you stumble, the bad guy or force whatever comes behind you catches up to you game over. And the reality is that I think those games are so addictive because that's how we often approach life, that we're chasing after something that we're going after something that never ultimately fulfills. And if it's, if we're not chasing after something, then we're spending the other time running from something, maybe it's our past, maybe it's a situation maybe it's a circumstance and we're like, no, I cannot let that catch me, I have to keep going, I have to reach the next level and we push and we push and we push. But what happens is if we don't reach the level of expectation, then we feel like a failure, but if we do reach that level of expectation what we realize is that it's empty. And so either way, even when you succeed, you lose when you put your purpose on other people's expectations from you. There's circumstantial they create pressure on the reverse when you put your purpose and connect it with experiencing God, connecting relational with the one who created you, the one who gave you purpose and identity. Instead of focusing on what others expect of you, you focus on who you're supposed to come. Instead of being under pressure, you unlocked potential and you become this man or this woman of God that is uniquely shaped to have an impact on the world. So your purpose driven life. This concept, the reason that this book had so many copies sold, I think 35 million was the last that I saw is because people long for purpose. But the first statement of the book is that it's not about you, it's not about you and to be purpose driven. It's not that you're running from something, but rather you have intrinsic value because you exist that right now as you are, all your successes, all your failures, You have ultimate and infinite and eternal value because you belong to God. And having value. Having purpose allows you to live from your identity and not for your identity. And it makes all the difference because truly, truly, truly you matter to God. Mark Twain says this. He says the two most important days in your life are the day that you were born and then the day you figure out why We're gonna take a look at a passage of scripture today. That comes from Ephesians chapter one Ephesians chapter one And in this passage paul is going to really connect the power between how all of God loves all of who you are and this idea of purpose really comes from your connection and experience of him and that the only fulfillment, the true lasting fulfillment that you're going to have in life, it's going to be when you actually open your hand and recognize that you were created for something greater and eternity and that you can practice, you can use the warm up time to do the things that you're going to be doing forever. What are those things? Well, let's let's take a look at what this passage tells us it to help us understand. It really breaks down into three sections. And so we're gonna read verse three through 14 of Ephesians chapter one and this passage is one of the richest passages of scripture in all of the bible. So we could spend an entire year on the verses that we're going to read today. But I want to just take the theme, the broad brush stroke of purpose and identity and the power and connection of God to us and us to God. And so the first section in Ephesians chapter one, verses three through six, It's really set up this way is that God. The father selects us, Which makes us family, God chooses us. God selects us before we ever selected God. God chose us. God selects us, which makes us family. Let me read here in Ephesians chapter one, starting in verse three, and I highlighted some of the words where you can see the connection right out of scripture, blessed be the God and father of our Lord, jesus christ, who has blessed us in christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he noticed his word, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us. So again, another word for being chosen. He predestined us for adoption as sons through jesus christ according to what to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved nine times In this passage, you're gonna see the phrase in him, which means in christ. And so this first section, you see how God the father, God the father chooses us or selects us before the creation of the world adopts us as sons and daughters, which makes us family. There's power in knowing that you belong. You belong. You're in regardless of your physical earthly family, you belong to a greater heavenly spiritual. This passage takes on a whole new meaning to me as of two years ago when it says that we have been adopted as sons and daughters of God Because in May of 2000 In 2017. We we adopted Khloe our youngest daughter. And I you know I don't really cry a lot during movies or anything like that. But I get super emotional when it comes to my family. And so to be in the courtroom with this little girl that we had been fostering and to hear the judge say she's yours, she is legally yours. There wasn't a dry eye in the room to be like you our daughter, I and your father and we are your forever family. And to know that she will be loved and she will be accepted because she was chosen. We didn't put her through hoops. We didn't say okay we're gonna have a series of trials and we have a bunch of kids lined up and the winner of the competition gets to be our kids. So we didn't do that. But to be able to say you are loved and you are chosen and you are special. So what happens? What are the rights that you gain when you are adopted? Besides the last name? And and those things you actually gained. I think the biggest blessing is that you gain infinite access. My little daughter is at that stage where she crawls in bed with us a lot in the night like any any time there's a storm or something. She comes up and she just says daddy, can I snuggle daddy, I'm scared. Can I snuggle? And I say yes, your mom would love to go to the other side. I want to sleep. No. And and so of course as a parent, you, the child comes in, right? That's access in the middle of the night. You take that same situation and you pull out the relationship of the relationship of parent child. It really becomes inappropriate pretty quickly, doesn't it? You can't go over to a stranger's house sneaking in the middle of the night and like, hey, I'm scared, can I snuggle? Right? It doesn't work. If someone came and woke you up in the middle of the night, you're like, whoa, this is a very different conversation. Okay, police will probably be involved. But here's the reality is that when you are a child of God, regardless of your family situation now, you have infinite and direct access to the heavenly father, the same person that created the world. It says chose you before he even created it. Which means that not only did he created for his glory, as it says at the end of verse six, but that he created it for us to enjoy. He created it for his Children. He created it says that he chose us and then he created the world. So that before you were even a thought and a little twinkle in the eye of your parents before they even dated God knew how many days you would live on this earth. And that God has a plan and a purpose for you, that God created you on purpose and with a purpose and that you are an adopted child of God. And by bearing the name and the image of God, that that means that it includes you into the riches of the inheritance of the saints, which is the entire universe and the power that comes with his name that comes because God selects us, which means your family, your family right now as part of a church body, you are family right now for those longing for kids or having relationships. That longing comes from this desire of being in a family and it's ultimately fulfilled in being a child of God. There's a reason that burden is in your heart. There's a reason that longing for relationship is in your heart. It's because you long for that access that God gives us because he selected you before the world was ever spoken into existence. But he doesn't stop there because secondly, it says in this passage that jesus saves us, which means you are forgiven. Jesus saves us, which means you are forgiven. So the father selected you, which makes you family, then jesus. The son ultimately saves you, which gives you Forgiveness. Let's read this passage, starting in verse seven, in him, we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which is set forth in christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, all things in heaven and on earth in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him. Who works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who are the first to hope in christ might be to the praise of his glory. This idea of being selected is to the praise of his glory. But then in verse 12 is this powerful picture. It says that we are to the praise of his glory. That means that God enjoys us and gets glory out of us. And that the most important thing that you can know is that God loves you. The most important thing you can do is to love him back. Imagine continue with his picture of adoption. Imagine being adopted by a billionaire. Imagine what if you had like millions of dollars in debt. And then you found out that you were a child of a billionaire, not only would your debts be paid, but you now have access to wealth beyond anything you can imagine or dream. And when you think about the richest person on earth who has billions of dollars that pales into comparison where people talk about dollars, God talks about Galaxies, think about that, that the universe was not created for us if it was, it was way too big. But the universe was created for God to demonstrate to us just how big God's love really is. There are entire universes and Galaxies that we will never see and they simply exist because they can and we know that if God's power can speak these things into existence, he can speak truth and love into your life and he can give you the power to overcome any battle that you're facing. It's the same power that spoke the world into existence, that conquered the grave that he can look into your heart into mine and say your sins are forgiven Now some of you might be sitting there thinking, yeah, but you don't know what I've done. I mean my my sins are longer than a CVS receipt. Okay. But no matter how deep of a hole you dig yourself, God's love and forgiveness is deeper still. And it was bought with a price where where where he talks about a cartoon, He read one day in a newspaper and it was a lawyer reading a clients will who just passed away to the family members that this client didn't like. And so the lawyer reads this, he says reading my clients will, he says, I john jones being of sound mind and body spent it all and you get nothing. This person didn't like his family. So rather than leaving inheritance, he spent it all and wasted it beforehand. See, jesus didn't spend all of our inheritance, but he did pay for it. He didn't spend it all, but he paid it all, giving us access not to just him as heavenly father, but to the riches of his glory. The hope from mystery, this power and love and purpose that comes through the forgiveness of sins. When we admit that we have sinned, we believe that jesus is God and his savior and the only way to heaven, he promises that that that debt that should be paid. That it is finished, that it is wiped clean, that you are forgiven and you start a new life as a new creation one as a child of God. But it didn't stop there. He continues on. So in verse 13 and 14, now we talk about the Holy Spirit and you might have caught on to this, that we first talked about God the father, how God selects us, which means that we are family. Then we have jesus, the son, he saves us, which means you are forgiven. And then we have the Holy Spirit who seals us, which means that we are free. This is a passage known as a a trinity arian passage. The word trinity actually is not found in the bible. It's a term that was created later to describe the concept and and in in simple uh in simplified terms. It's hard to understand that God is three persons one and the same. In other words, you have God, the father, jesus, the son and the Holy Spirit. That equal role, equal value, equal divinity, but that they play a different part. And what this means is that when God spoke the world into existence, when he created us, he already had perfect relationship that he didn't create us because he needed us. He created us because he wanted us. He didn't create us to get something he created to give, He created us for family. He created us. Being created in his image means that we are created for relationship and that we are created to give. And that when you enter the relationship With what can I give not, what can I get? It radically transforms your mindset. And it improves the relationships that you have. And so we have the Holy Spirit's role here in verse 13 and 14, and that the Holy Spirit seals us, which makes us free. So it says here in verse 13 and 14 in him, you also, when you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. To the praise of His glory. Notice that phrase is repeated three times God, the father chose you before the creation of the world, the foundation of it. He selected us so that we are family to the praise of his glory, Jesus saves us, which means we are forgiven to the praise of his glory. And then the Holy Spirit seals us, giving us the guarantee for right now to the praise of his glory. That word seal had more weight in the ancient near East time because when the king was trying to communicate a message, they would put a seal a wax seal with an imprint of the king's ring. So that when you received a message, if it was unopened, if the wax seal was covered, you knew that it was true and you knew that it was accurate and that that was a promise that would be delivered. Well notice what is sealed. In this case it says we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. Not pressed on a letter, not pressed on the stone like the 10 commandments but pressed into our hearts. Which means that eternity does not begin the moment you die. But the moment you accept and believe in jesus too many christians start their spiritual journey. Thinking well I prayed a prayer when I was young now when I die I get to go to heaven. But I don't know I don't know what to do. In the meantime the meantime is important because while that dot is very small in comparison it impacts all of eternity, it carries the weight of the king and that really he is the seal of that promise. Think about buying a house and that you put down earnest money or or this idea of putting down a down payment, the down payment of our eternal inheritance is the power of the Holy Spirit inside of you. That it actually says in scripture that having the spirit inside of you is even better than just having jesus beside you. Peter talks about that that having the spirit inside of you is better than just even if jesus were standing next to you. And so you have the very power of God inside of your heart so that you can actually make decisions that you can grow. That you can walk in step with the spirit and you can experience the fruit of the spirit. Things like patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, joy self control. You have the opportunity for victory because the Holy Spirit is inside of you. There is a story of a lady who shared it and a christian magazine a couple years ago and she said that she was browsing a department store with her young son who was just learning to read and they walked by the maternity section and and and the clothes for pregnant ladies. And and so there's all the picture of of the pregnant women just smiling and from what I've seen of um pregnancy that that's not an accurate picture of pregnancy. But anyway, so like everyone's all smiling and they got all the clothes and this little boy just got really excited and started tugging on the pant leg of the mom. Like mom, mom, wow, this is amazing, this is awesome, this is incredible! And she's kind of like getting confused, like why is my son getting all excited for pregnant women clothing? And she and this boy who was just learning to read, shouts up to the mom and says look mom, they even make clothes for eternity now, uh huh. He thought they said eternity close and well God might not be making eternity close, what he is doing is that he is working in your heart right now. That faith is meant for this time on earth and that the holy spirit seals us in our hearts so that we can live out of our purpose and we can be purpose driven and everything that we say and do because our identity is secure and we are free to live and go after something because you don't have to chase something that you already have. Does that make sense? You don't have to go after it and reach a certain level if you already own it. And that's the beauty of Christianity is that you you can stop the chase because you are worthy that your life is no longer about trying to achieve, but more so a thank you note living out in response to the grace that you have received that when you understand and know and believe in your heart that you have been forgiven and that you have eternal life and that you have been blessed. You are free to go and love and to serve people like Jesus loved us. And to share the good news of him. Because your identity is secure. And you've been promised an inheritance for all eternity and that you're living your life not for the pre game, but for the real thing coming up and we choose to stop keeping stats of our possessions and our positions in the pregame. And we start living and thinking in light of eternity. It's been said that the people who do most in this world, I think most of the next world. And so what is it that we have been created for? What is our purpose? Why are we here on earth? Why does jesus even give us the suspect in the first place? Well, first of all, he created you with the option to love. We're not robots that we can choose. Yes. He calls us. Yes, he chooses us. Yes, he predestined us. But it's the mixture of both. There's security in that but there's also the free will to love. And that if there's no choice in that it's not love. There's security and God selecting you. But then there's beauty and you selecting God. And so that that when you come alongside him and you believe in him that there's relationship and there's beauty and there's strength. So what is it that we've been called to do? Well, this is just a brief preview because that's what we're gonna talk about the next five weeks, but let me give you five things that you have been created to worship, you have been created to worship, which means to love God again, the greatest thing to know is that Jesus loves you, the greatest thing to do is to love him back. So next week, not only are we going to talk about worship, my friend Isaac Pittman who is going to bless us with his testimony his story and we're gonna connect through song in a way like I think maybe we've never had done before, it's gonna be awesome, make sure you come back next week and then the following week we're talking about fellowship, which is a natural connection that when you have fellowship, it's a churchy word, but simply put as loving other people, the way jesus loved us, you know worship means that everything is sacred, everything that you do, fellowship means everyone has value. And that if jesus was willing to die for someone, I should be willing to talk with them and to serve them and to love them, but then we've also been created for discipleship, which means to grow that you were created to become more like jesus and you can take, everyone has the next step to take and then you were created for ministry, which means that you are created to give of your time, talents and treasures this idea to serve one another. It says in Mark 1045 that Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and that there is blessing when you give of yourself to other people and you joined the mission. And then lastly, we've been called to evangelism because evangelism, which is sharing the good news of jesus with other people. Evangelism is one of the only two things you can do on this earth and not do in heaven. The other one is sin. But I don't think God put us here on the dot so that we can go on Sinning. I do though think you put us on this earth on this dot to go and share of this good news because it's natural to share what you love and when you receive jesus into your life, you share that opportunity with others. And so what are we going to do this morning? I want to challenge you Just to do two things No one, I want to challenge you to pick up a book. Maybe some of you have read this study maybe 15 plus years ago and I want to encourage you to pick this back up because you're in a different situation than you were years ago. And also they've kind of updated and done some new things in here. And and if you've never read and you're not really a reader, what's great about this book. It's a little bit every day starts day one September 1, starting today. And there's even online material that goes with it. So if you're like, man, I hate reading even every single day, there's like a three minute video that goes along with this too. So as deeper as why did you want to take this thing? It's available to you and we're giving it away for free. So that's the first thing and the second thing is we want to encourage you to sign up for a growth group. We have different bible studies and options, but so that you can talk about this with people that you can work through this study together. And if your work schedule is like I I can't do that. I can't jump into a group. I want to encourage you to take not one book, but to And find somebody else that you can walk through this with. Because I believe truly, if you take these next 40 days and you commit to trying to find the answer of why am I created? What is my purpose? Why am I here? It will radically change your life if you're given a day to cut down a tree, doesn't it make sense to at least spend the first couple of minutes of that day sharpening the ax. That's what we're doing As we're taking 40 days and every sunday, we'll have a fresh message that's here for everybody, but we're gonna be walking through this, we're going to use the rest of the week the other 167 hours to connect and explore and experience jesus because when it comes to discovering your purpose, it's not about meeting the expectations of the world, but it's experiencing jesus who created and saved you. So if the band comes up on stage and we wrap up, I just want to pray for you. I just want to pray just a prayer of blessing over you and that if this is your first time here in church or maybe the first time you've been here in awhile, I want to give you the opportunity to receive this jesus that I've been talking about. I want you to pray along with me and to and to mark that connection card that you're committing your life to him so that we can follow up with you. Maybe you need to take another step like we celebrated last week with the baptism. Maybe you need to join a group or look to serve or take that next step of faith where it is that God is moving you. I want to challenge you to take that step and then after I pray, we're gonna pass the elements that we do on the first sunday of every month and we're gonna take what's known as communion. If you, if you don't quite know or you're not quite sure what you believe, then feel free to let the elements pass you by. We're just glad you're here checking things out. But if if you are a believer in jesus, then I want you to take these elements as their past. It's one cup, there's the wafer in the juicer and one just say, don't get confused on that. And then once they're all passed, I'm gonna come back up and we're gonna take these together because they are a symbol of what jesus did for us. And it's through jesus and through experiencing jesus that we find our purpose in life, let's pray dear heavenly father, We are sinners, that we cannot make it to heaven on our own God. While we could not reach up to you, you reach down to us, God, you selected us making us family, jesus. You saved us through dying on the cross, making us forgiven. Mhm. And God, your spirit seals us, making us free. May we commit our lives to you when we find our purpose, not in meeting the expectations of this world, not through chasing after possessions and stats like you would in a pregame. But when we focus our minds on eternity, on the things that matter, on connection and relationship with you and with each other. And when we have this time of communion, reflecting on what you've done for us, thank you for saving us God. We give this morning to you amen