A New Kind of Fitness

All right, we are in part two of a series that I believe has the power to change you completely. It changed you completely this year, and we were calling it Brand New. And the idea of this series is that God wants us to be brand new. In fact, He wants to make sure positive that we're experiencing everything He has for us. A brand new life.

But unfortunately for many, they don't experience this brand new life. 2 Corinthians is our theme verse. If you're with us, if you want to turn to your electronic device or your Bible, or you can look to the screen. And on YouVersion, we also have an event there set up for you. So you can actually follow it in YouVersion.

You can pull up the scripture. You can write notes on the side. So if you're following along, that's a great way to do it if you're electronic, kind of a phone person or iPad person or what have you. But, but the scripture says this, when someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. A brand new person inside.

He is not the same anymore. He said, you're not the same person you once were. You aren't going and doing the same things you were doing before. You aren't, you aren't experiencing the lifeless things that you were trying to find in life anymore. You are a new person inside.

And he's not, he's not the same anymore. He's, you've done, you have a new life. In fact, it says a new life has begun. And so when we give our hearts to Christ, we can be made brand new. The power of the Holy Spirit is transforming us.

But unfortunately, and this is where it gets hard, and that's why we're getting deep with this series. This is one of my deeper ones that I really want to get into your heart and your soul with. I want it to soak in. You know, I want you to learn something. I want you to take something with this.

The truth is, we don't experience brand new. In fact, we give our hearts to Christ and, and we kind of go into the Christian life and we start, you know, doing better. We start coming to church more. We start tithing. We start reading our Bibles.

We put, you know, our quiet time together and all that stuff. But for a lot of us, in fact, some studies say that 78% of Christians never experience this brand new life-altering life that we can have because they haven't experienced something inside. We've made it outward. We've tried to fix our lives outward. And God doesn't want that for you.

I don't want that for you. And I know that you don't want that. Because when you came into this life in Christ, He lit you up on the inside. And you know it's, you know what's happening inside of you. But you can't figure out why.

Why do I still deal with all the stuff that I dealt with before? Why am I hung up on all these habits that I, that I had before? So how do we experience brand new? How, how do we, how do we change on the inside? How does that happen?

And that's the idea of this series. I hope is that as we go through the series that, that you will be able to experience brand new. That we will be able to give you the steps to be able to transform, your life to be transformed in a brand, as a brand new person. So last week we talked about a new kind of faith. And I gave you some, some things about what it really means to be a worshiper.

That it's not just a time on Sunday morning where we get together and raise our hand and listen to good music, right? It's an, it's, it's a life long surrender to God. And, and, and so we, we asked, are we worshiping intimately? Are we growing deeper? Are we being fed?

And we, we gave you some practical points. I'm not going to go into that this week. You can always go back and listen to the recording to get that information. Or, or you can go to, to, to the Bible app and pull up the, pull up the notes from last week. But this week I want to touch on one thing.

But before I do that, next week you have to be here for this because this is something we get caught up on all the time. A new type of friend. We're going to look at brand new friends. We're going to talk about the people that shape our lives. And many times we neglect that part of it.

So you need to be here next week for that. But this week I want to talk about brand new fitness. Brand new fitness. All right. Now some of you are thinking right off hand.

Oh no. Here you go, pastor. You're going to start talking about how I need to get in shape. I need to be in shape. And how I need to work out.

Before I go to where I want to go with this, let me, let me just, let me just tell you this. I did the Google search and I did all the, all the, all the other stuff on what the number one New Year's resolution is every year. And what do you think that is? Right? Yeah.

Going to the gym, eating better, losing weight. Everybody goes to that. That's like the number one thing people go to. Always. I'm going to get better fit this year.

And then we, we start off by going to the gym every, every week. The next year we, we, we, we tell people, well, I'm going to try it three weeks and then out of, out of, out of the week rather than doing it five weeks because it didn't work the week that, that the year before. Right? And then, um, you're just trying to drive by the gym, right? This year because you couldn't make that happen last year.

So it's kind of funny how our New Year's resolutions don't really work. But I'm not talking about that type of fitness. You know, what if I were to say that's not your top priority? That's important. You need to be healthy.

You need to be healthy for your family, for your life, for your job, for, for your ministry. You need to be healthy. I'm not neglecting that part. But that's not where we're getting to today. Today we want to look at the inside.

Again, coming to the inside, what, how are we doing? How are we doing spiritually? Are we spiritually fit? Are we prepared, uh, uh, in the world? Are we, are we brand new?

Do we want to be brand new is the question. Do we want to be brand new people? How do we get fit on the inside? But before we can experience spiritual fitness, we need to understand who we are. Because, because the, the, the, the idea here, and this is just real, let me just be real with you, and I don't want to be negative, but I'm being positive with you.

I'm positive. I'm positive that this is what's going to happen, okay? Even though it may come across as negative, I'm positive that everyone in this room will pass away unless the Lord should come back. Everybody will die. So if we focus on the fitness first, which again, be fit.

I believe in being fit. I believe we should eat right. I believe we should be healthy. But the spirit man lives forever. So why do we neglect the spirit man and we focus on the spiritual?

I mean the physical. Why are we always focused on what's going on on the external? How can I make my life better? How can I fix my health? How can I fix my body?

How can I make all of that better? And we neglect the spiritual. We're always putting the spiritual on the back burner. Now, in Christian theology, we call each individual has three different persons. Kind of like the Godhead in some ways.

Of course, I'm not going to get into the Trinity today. That's probably a little heavy. We will talk about that in another series. But it sort of mimics that a little bit because we see this triune nature in human beings. There's debates in Christian theology of how all that works out and I don't want to really get into that either.

But most of our faith believes that there are three different levels of our being. The first one is the physical. That's our bodies. That's what we crave, the things we need, the things that... And our bodies are always crying out, you know, I got to have this, got to have that, and I got to do this, and I got to do that.

And then there's our emotions and our soul, if you want to call it that. Our soul and our emotions. This is the part of us where our feelings sit because we're always operating on our feelings, right? I feel this. I just feel that.

And it's our personality. It's how we think about things. It's our mentality. It's everything. And then there's this part of us that goes much deeper.

Much deeper. And most of you know that it's there. If you're not a believer today, even for you, you know that there's something deeper. There's something more than just my personality and my feelings and my emotions and my body and my arms and legs and my mind. There's something more that desires to connect with something deeper, and we call that the spirit man.

And the spirit man is the part of us that connects with God. It's the part of us that is like God. It's the part of us when we look back in Genesis and we see that the Holy Spirit, you know, that God actually breathed the breath of life into us. We're the only creature in the world that God actually breathed the breath of life in because we've been made like him. That's the part of us that is like him.

That's the part of us that wants to connect with God. So there's this constant war and there's this constant battle going on between these three persons that we are. The body wants control, right? We have people that just rely on the body. If my body feels like this, I'm going to do it.

If I need food, I need to go get some food. If I need water, I need to go get some water, right? And those are all necessary needs. And then there's things like, oh, my pleasures and my desires and my body's aching and I need that. So we let the body dictate where we're going.

We let the body pull us to whatever that need is. And it's always screaming and crying out, you need to do this. Because, you know, you need this. You deserve this. You want, you know, this is what.

Satan did this with Eve, you know. Look at that delicious apple. Wow. The pleasures of the eye, you know. And then we have the emotions.

And some people just rely on their emotions. If I feel this way, it is this way, right? If I feel, if it feels good, it must be right, right? If this is wrong, I don't want to be right, right? How many of you said that before?

Because we let our emotions and our feelings. And the problem with this is when we allow that to leave, or lead rather, then it ruins our identity. We put our identity in something else. It brings us to places of depression. Places where we feel distant, distant from others.

Because we're always comparing ourselves and our personality and our ideas and our, and we're always comparing it to someone else. It just doesn't work. And then there's the spirit man. And then there's the spirit man. And if we can allow the spirit man to rise up, we want to light it up.

If the spirit man can light up, if we can have, let him control our life. We can let God control our life. If we can connect with God in the spirit realm, in the spirit man, then we can live a successful Christian life. This is the real Christian life. When we're led by the spirit.

So today I want to challenge us in spiritual fitness to be spiritually fit. You know, Paul talked about this. You know, the greatest apostle to ever, you know, write any scripture in the Bible. I mean, he wrote most of the Bible, right? Wrote to the New Testament at least, yes.

And he was, he was a great, you know, when we look to Paul, what do we think? Man, it's Paul. You know, I can't be like Paul. You know, Paul, you know, he did things. He did miracles and he wrote scripture and, and, but he struggled with this very idea.

And the Bible doesn't tell us specifically what that is. But we know that flesh was involved, personality and emotions were involved. He dealt with this all the time. He says this in Romans 7, starting with verse 18, if you're following in your notes. For I have the desire to do what is good.

Meaning I want to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. I can't do it. I try to. I start down the path. And in the Christian life, we're like that, right?

We're like, we want to do good. We know we're supposed to do good. But we just don't, I just don't, I can't do it. You know? For what I do is not the good I want to do.

You know, what I do is not where I want to go. No, the evil I do not want to do. This I keep on doing. I just keep doing it. Have you ever felt stuck?

Like I keep trying to break this sexual sin off my life. I treat this, this, this, this habit or this eating behavior or, or, or this secular emotional downward spiral that I always go on because it always becomes to offense in my life. And I'm stuck and I'm trying to break through it. But, and, and I know I'm supposed to do better. I know how I'm supposed to react.

I know how I'm supposed to react. I know how I'm supposed to live, but I just can't do it because I'm fighting it all day long. And he said this, he says, now, if I do not, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it. But it is the sin, if you underline that or highlight it, the sin living in me that does it. So if you ever wonder why, what's going on in your body that makes you want to do the wrong things, it's that sin nature that we're trying to beat.

This is biblical, this is real, and God wants the best for you, but you've got a sin nature that you're going to have to deal with. We're going to have to fight this. Paul fought it, and we need to fight it. People throughout the Bible fought it, we need to fight it. We're no different than Paul was, Paul was no different than us.

It's something that we have to battle all the time, this sin nature. So he was talking about what drives spiritual condition. It's the flesh that keeps pounding at me. But we have hope, because in Romans 24, 25, he says, he starts condemning himself. He's allowed, you know, sometimes those emotions play.

He says, oh, wretched man that I am. Oh, I'm just awful. I'm an awful person. Lord, who can save me? Who will rescue me from this body of death, is what he says.

But he then ends with this. He says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank you for the cross, Jesus. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. Thank you.

There is a way to beat that. Paul recognized that he is a sinful human being. By nature, he's sinful, but he offers us a solution through Jesus Christ. The part of us that connects with Jesus, we can actually break free of these things if we focus on Jesus and we focus on the power that we have in him. He is an overcomer.

So the spirit man through Jesus Christ offers us a way. And the rest of the chapter goes on in Romans of how we are to live that out. But I want to give you three points, and I'm just going to bear down a little more. I'm going to go back to this. Here's what it does.

First of all, when we allow something else besides the spirit man to rule, this is what happened. First of all, it destroys us. If you want to live a destroyed life, if you want to live a life that is destructive, then allow the flesh to rule, is what the Bible calls it, the body to rule. Or allow your emotions to rule. But God has something more for us.

Because here's the fact. Satan is in the business of destroying. It says he wants to steal your life. He wants to kill you. And not only does he want to kill you, recognize that progression there.

He wants to destroy you. He wants every piece of your life, your eternity ruined. And that's his hope, and that's what he strives to do. And he will do everything he can to master your life. He wants that body part or that emotional part of you to be ruled, be the ruler of your life.

Because he wants to see you dead. And that's the reality. The enemy wants to see you dead. But in 1 Corinthians 6, 12, it says this. Paul kind of gets on this.

Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. There's a lot of things that I can do, and I can be a part of, and I have freedom in that. But it's not all beneficial. So there's some things I've got to start thinking about in my life. There's some things I've got to start correcting in my life, is what he's kind of getting down.

He says everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. See, even the stuff I can go do, and I can feel okay, and I can be secure in Jesus, I'm going to not let it master me. And I don't know about you, I don't want anything to master me. The only person I want to master me is the Holy Spirit. I want Jesus Christ to master me.

And I'm striving all the time to do that. And I know you're the same way. You know you want to do what's right, but you're allowing things, you're possibly allowing things in your life to master you. And Paul's hitting on this. And to be honest with you, we came out of a really indulgent season, didn't we?

We just came out of Christmas, and we ate, and Thanksgiving, and we ate. And then after Christmas, New Year's, we ate, and we just ate, ate, ate, and just got lazy, and probably didn't work out. And that's why we're all making New Year's resolutions to work out this year, right? Because we just ate. So we've come out of a very indulgent time.

And that's why we set aside, and we've got a week left of this, a time of prayer and fasting. Now, I realize that prayer and fasting isn't for everybody yet. But I would challenge each of us, even if you haven't started it, or you haven't thought about it, maybe just give something this week a chance. Let go of something in your life, and make space for God. Because, you know, God wants to come in and do something brand new in your life.

He wants to give you a brand new inside so the outside can change, right? But we've got to allow space for Christ to fill. See, God is not going to force himself into a space that's not there. That's just not how he works. And when we set aside time for fasting and prayer, and throughout the year even just prayer and different moments of fasting and taking time with the Lord, it begins to open up a space.

And what does God do? He comes and fills that space, and he starts to work in our lives. And when we talk about the flesh man, and the emotions, and the spiritual man, if there's a battle going on, and the flesh is strong, guess who's going to win? The flesh. If the emotions are stronger, and the emotions don't care anything about your body, that's why people take their own lives, unfortunately.

Because emotions rule, your life means nothing. But we need to kill that part of us as well, or at least weaken that part. All these pieces are good if they're in the context of what God wants to do in our life. But if they're ruling, it can be a very disastrous place. It can destroy you.

So in a time of fasting and prayer, this is a time for us to weaken those other two. To weaken those other two so that the spirit man can be lit up and connect with God. And then that renewing strength comes in. I can't explain it. I can't really give you some kind of tangible feeling or thought or whatever of what that's like.

But I can promise you this. If you allow the spirit man to rise up during this, destruction will not take place in your life. Freedom will take place in your life. And you'll see yourself reaching new levels spiritually. And God has great plans and a great vision for all of your lives.

And you're going to see that. You're going to start seeing that more. And so we need to... That can destroy us. If we let any other part of us rule, it will destroy us.

The second thing is, if you're following your notes, it dilutes our witness. It dilutes our witness. When we allow the flesh or the body, whatever you want to call it, or the emotions to rise, it kills our witness. It kills our witness. And a lot of us, you know, when we're involved in things, or particularly sin, or something that's kind of controlling our lives, the first thing we think, right, it's not hurting anybody else.

It's not hurting anyone else. It's just hurting me. Why is the pastor all up, why is my accountability partner all up in arms about this? I mean, I do it in private, and it's not hurting anybody else. It's just hurting me.

But the truth is, it is hurting others. Because it dilutes your witness. And God didn't intend for us to be hidden away. The idea of even the name Salt Church is that we are the salt of the earth. And if the salt is not out there flavoring, then what is it good for?

It's not good for anything. It's just kind of gravel that you put on the ground and you walk across. It's just nothing. It's not good for anything. God said, and Jesus said, you are a light of the world.

You are a light in this world. You are a city on a hill. He never intended for us to be hidden. We are people who should be out there giving life to this world, flavoring this world. 2 Corinthians 8.

12 says this, for we are taking pains to do. And I love how he says that. For we are taking pains to do what is right. Not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men. So we're working on ourselves.

We're allowing the Spirit to change us and do things so that we can be a witness to others. And what if we could live such an attractive life that others would just, not just consider Jesus, but just go after Jesus? Man, look at him. How does he even experience joy and peace and hope in that situation? Because he's gone through a lot in life.

She's just going through miserable stuff, but yet she's just so excited and so passionate. And I want that. And it's attractive. And we want it. And we're going for it.

And what if we live that kind of life? Because a lot of times we're walking through life as Christians. I'm a Christian, but I'm miserable and I'm down. And nobody wants that. But God doesn't want us to have that kind of attitude.

That's why he wants to strengthen our spirit, man, so that we can overcome the emotions and the flesh. There's a popular song called, It Is Well With My Soul. All of you know that song. You're probably singing it in your head right now if you've been associated with church at any point. Even if you're not really a church person, you've probably heard the song over and over again.

The guy who wrote that song was Horatio Spafford. And he was a man who lost a lot. He lost his son at two years old. And he was involved in the Great Chicago Fire in the late 1800s. And he lost everything.

Lost everything. And he and his family were preparing to go on a trip to England. And they were going to take some time and kind of get away from all that was going on. Kind of take a little vacation time. But he had a lot going on because of what had happened in Chicago.

And so he sent his family on the way. Sent them on a ship. Says, I'll catch up with you. And on the way, his family, while they were heading to England, the ship had an event and sunk into the ocean. His wife survived, but all four of his daughters passed away.

And while he was, when he got the message and he was on his way to England, he, the captain pulled him to the side, said, and he kind of slowed the ship down. Says, do you need a moment? This is the exact place where this ship went down. And I know you lost your daughters here. Do you need some time to reflect and just to focus as your children were memorialized here in the spot?

And as they slowed down and they stopped at that area for a little bit, he began to pen these words. When peace like a river attendeth my soul, my way. When sorrows like sea pillows roll. Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to know. It is well.

It is well with my soul. How many of us can say that? And then no matter my lot, no matter my, what, what has cost me on this one, it is well in my soul. And, and this song has been used throughout the years as testimony to so many people who are going through hard times. Because why?

Because they look to this man who was a testimony to others of the greatness of Jesus, even in the midst of tragedy. And I'm not going to lie to you, times hurt. And times are painful. And the world is painful at times. And there's no way out.

It seems like there's no way out at times. But we can experience something far more on the inside when we connect with God in the Spirit. Could we be those people that are so attractive? Even, even in the midst of pain and sorrow. And the, and the third thing, it dishonors God.

In the Old Testament, God dwelled in buildings. In fact, a lot of people still believe that God dwells in buildings, right? Growing up, I was, you know, don't run in, don't run into church, you know. Be quiet, you know, sit down. No drinks in here, you know.

No, none of that, you know. This is God's holy place. You have to be quiet when you walk in. Mom would spank you, you know, if you tried to, tried to cut up, you know, or anything like that. Even when church wasn't going on, because it was the holy place, right?

And the Old Testament taught this, you know. God dwelt in the holy place. But in the New Testament, Jesus changes everything. And he begins to share this message where God doesn't dwell in buildings made of stone. He actually dwells in us.

And as believers, he works in us, works with us. In fact, 1 Corinthians 6 15 says, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? That when Christ doesn't work in you, you're actually a part of Christ. Christ is a part of you. And he dwells in you.

And then he says this, shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never. Now that's kind of a real dramatic way of looking at it, like a prostitute. And that was kind of some context, a situation. that were going on during that time in the church.

But in reality, you know, it can be pointed to anything. Anything that we're allowing to rule us. Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them to a prostitute? Should I take them and unite them to overeating? Should I take them and unite them to sexual misconduct?

Should I take them and unite them to gossip? Let's just go there, right? A lot of you are gossiping and even in the lighter sins, you know? And we're tying them to Jesus Christ. It just dishonors God.

God wants us to be honored and wants to be honored through our bodies. So it dishonors God. So those three things. But He wants us to have a new fitness. And how do we have this new fitness that we're talking about?

We need to get fit for the master's work. It's really what it comes down to. Fit for the master's use. Because God wants to use us for things that we could only dream of. He's got big dreams for our life.

He wants to blow your mind. And when we begin to allow Him to have His space, it changes everything. 2 Timothy says this, and I'm throwing a lot of scripture at you. And I know that we're getting rolling down to the last thing, and I'm going to end with these three points. But you've got to take this verse into account.

2 Timothy 2, 20 and 21. And I took it from the King James Version. So all of you King James people, woo, right? Okay. King James people.

Thou's and they's and all that. Okay. These and thee and thy. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth. So what he's saying here is basically there's two different types.

Let's just think about dishes in our collection, right? Like we've got the fine china, right? And then we have the Dixie, you know, paper plates that we use for the kids so we can throw away real quick, right? You might be a redneck if Dixie cups are in your fine china cabinet. I think that was, I know I'm not as good as Jeff Foxworthy.

He's got a better punchline. But God's saying, God's asking us here, you know, do we want to be fine china or do we want to be Dixie cups or Dixie paper plates? You know, what are we looking for here? Which one do we want? Because God has a desire for you to be golden goblets.

He doesn't desire you to be a little cup that we toss and throw away. He says there's these two different types and some to be honor and some to be dishonor. And if a man therefore purge himself of these, he shall be a vessel of honor, sanctified and fit for the master's use. I love that. He's making us fit for the master's use.

We need to be spiritually fit and prepared unto every work. In 1 Timothy 4.8 he says, for physical training is of some value. So he's not putting aside physical training, you know. But he says, but godliness has value for all things.

A holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. So here's four questions you need to ask yourself real quick here, okay? Number one, am I offering myself daily? Am I offering myself daily or I'm just kind of giving my church time to God and my small group time to God? Or am I really offering my life daily?

Romans 12.1 says this, Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices. When we think of a sacrifice, we think of, you know, dying and giving up the ghost, giving up life for something or someone. But he's asking us to be every day to be living, walking, breathing sacrifices. To offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing.

And what is that? Honoring God. This is your spiritual act of worship. So this has to happen daily. How do we do that?

How do we do that? Well, if we don't go to God first in our day, daily walk, then we're going to fail. So every morning, I suggest, first of all, realizing, you know, pray to God, I am the temple of the Holy Spirit. I need you to just tell yourself, let that soak in, I am a temple of the Holy Spirit. I am a temple of the Holy Spirit.

And realize that every part of your body needs to be given over to God. I'm giving you my mind. I'm giving you that so I can focus on pure things. I'm giving you my eyes so that I can see the things that you want me to see, Lord. I'm giving you my mouth.

I'm not going to have bad thoughts or bad, angry attitudes. And I'm not going to use things against people. I'm not going to, I'm going to have a clean mouth. I'm giving you my mouth, Lord, because it's honoring to you. I'm giving you my feet to walk where you want me to go.

And not to the places that you don't want me to go, Lord. Lord, I'm giving you my all. Just pray through your body and just allow God to demonstrate. God, put me in places that you want me to go. Put me, I don't care if it's just uncomfortable places, Lord.

I just want to be your vessel, Lord. Be a vessel in my life. You've got to go to Him. You've got to go to Him. And begin to walk that out.

And allow the Holy Spirit to guide you through that process. The second thing, you have to ask yourself, am I withdrawing weekly? Am I withdrawing weekly? And some of you may like this one. Because, but the funny thing is, most of us do violate this.

We like it, but we violate it. And that's the principle of a day of rest. The Bible calls it the Sabbath. The day that we take to honor God and rest just as God did. And for many of us, we're so involved in life and working and our situations and everything going on.

I just don't have time to stop. And we don't take time to rest. And this doesn't have to be Sunday. We, traditionally, we like to call it Sunday. When we leave church on Sunday and get home, we just kind of kill everything.

If you're somebody who works nights or weekends or odd hours, then just take some time to be with God and just rest. Rest. And pastors violate this all the time. I struggle with this. Because there's just so much to do in the church world.

And people are calling you. And things are happening. And you want to be there as a pastor. You want to be there. And we violate this more than anybody.

And we're doing a dishonor to God when we don't take care of ourselves by honoring Him as one of the ten. The big ten. Keep the Sabbath holy. We need to keep this body holy by taking time with Him. So take a break.

In fact, Isaiah 58 says this. If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on the holy day. If you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable. And if you honor it by going your own way and doing as you please and speaking idle words. If you want to listen to God tell you would better understand your childrenre Then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast in the inheritance of the father of Jacob, our father of Jacob."

Man, if you do that, he's going to give you more time. He's going to give you more ability. He's going to give you more passion to do his ministry and to walk in his calling. He's going to bless your family. He's going to give you more of this.

So, am I withdrawing weekly? Thirdly, am I living purposefully? And this is big. This is the reason we exist. Am I living purposefully?

Am I living purposefully? Because God has a vision for your life. We are the salt of the earth. And you know what that means? It means that in that day, salt was seen primarily as a preservative, not a flavor enhancer.

They used it to refrigerate their items because they didn't have refrigerators. They just put it in the ground and poured salt all over it to preserve. And salt was a powerful substance. So, when Jesus was talking to those people in that day, he was communicating something very powerful that you have the ability to preserve the entire world. Just you, just little you, walking in your purpose, has the power to change everything.

So, are you living in your purpose is the question. 1 Corinthians 9, 24 and 27 says, he says this, and he uses this in the context of sports. So, sports is coming up. So, he's using this in the context of sports. 1 Corinthians 9, 24 and 27.

Do you not know that in a race, all runners run? Yeah, everybody's like, yeah, yeah, of course, you know? Do you not know when you get the football, you have to run down the hill to make a touchdown? Oh, yeah, I get that. You get that?

Well, everybody's running, everybody's racing, and they're trying to get that goal. But only one gets the prize, right? Like, if that racer hits the goal line, who's going to get the trophy? If that team makes it to the goal line, who's going to get the trophy? That team, not both teams, right?

So, that's why they strive. Run in such a way that you get that prize, right? That's what he's saying. Everyone who competes in a game, in the games, which he's talking about, you know, Olympic-type games, because that was the big game in that day, goes into strict training. They get fit, spiritually fit.

So, he's telling us, you know, you get physically fit, you need to get spiritually fit. They do it to get a crown that will not last. These people, the sports guys, the basketball players, the football players, the hockey players, whatever your game of interest is, surfing, whatever that is, they do it for a crown that doesn't last, because all that fades away, right? So, spiritually, what are we doing? But we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly. I'm not just doing that. I'm not grabbing the football and running around in the field, you know, like going everywhere, not figuring out where I'm going, because there's no purpose in that. But I have a goal in mind when I know that there's something great on the other side that I can't see. I don't know, I can't see it, but it's there, and I'm striving, and I'm working, and I want it, because I know that there's something great on the other side, there's a crown.

Therefore, I do not run like a man aimlessly. I do not fight like a man beating in the air. No, I beat my body, and make it a slave to myself. See, guys, this is where it comes down. I'm beating my body.

It sounds silly, right? I'm beating my body. But spiritually, we have to do that, because we know, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. We're striving for a prize greater than ourselves. And our hope in this church is that everybody finds their unique purpose in Christ.

My hope for this church is that every one of you, every one of you know exactly how God made you, how God created you, how God built you for a purpose. And you know what? And that's why we do the things we do. That's why we have a growth track. We've actually revamped it, and we've got the first step, or the next step, because the first step, as I was reminded this week, my brother Tim, the first step is that you're here.

Praise God. The next step is, have lunch with me on February 11th, right after the service, and we'll tell you how you can take the next step and what God has called you to do. And then after that, we have a second step where, another step where you take that to really, really tune in exactly what God wants you to do if you don't know even at that step. And then what's the greatest step is to join a people to make a difference. And this will not only help you now, you know, just being in a church, we consider ourselves a launching pad for your ministry out there.

Our hopes isn't that you'll be here all the time, forever. We don't believe that you should be busy with church. We believe that you should be busy changing your neighborhood, changing your community. You should be out there meeting with your neighbors, cooking hot dogs with your neighbors, talking about Jesus with your neighbors, loving people. That's what you should be doing.

And we're doing this right here as a vessel so that you can get out there. You are a missionary in your community, and you need to be out there in your community making a difference. Every person in here needs to be. You need to be flying out of this church excited and vibrant and ready to make a change in this world. That's why we do what we do.

We don't do it just to create a bigger church or to grow our church. Yes, that's healthy churches grow. We're trying to create. We want to make disciples. We're all about making disciples.

But the purpose of discipleship in the church is so that you can be outside the church. And you can be making disciples outside the church. And they begin making disciples, and then everybody makes disciples. And then the community is changing, the city is changing, the world is changing. What's going on?

Wow. Powerful. Exciting. God's moving, and God's demonstrating Himself, and miracles are happening, and people's lives are being changed, and prayers are being answered, and communities are being changed. The poor are being fed.

The orphans are being found. It's just on and on. On and on. The widows are being taken care of. Why?

Because who else is going to do it? Other structures, other government organizations have tried, and they failed, right? Can we be the church to do that? Can we be the church to do that? Let the local church rise.

We are the hope of the world. Am I living purposefully? And lastly, am I honoring fully? Am I honoring fully? 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20 says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God, a gift from God?

You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body. Honor God with your body. It's that simple.

Honor God. Are you honoring God? We love to say that we're followers of Christ and believers, but when we're not honoring God, when we're not honoring God by actually living this life the way we call to live it, What is the salt good for? So I challenge you today, we're going deeper in this series because this is the first part of the year and I believe we should just get deep and February is coming up on a relationship series. We're going to talk about relationships and love and marriage and all that kind of stuff, you know.

We're going to get into that. But today I just want to challenge you. Are you honoring God? Are you honoring God? Are you simply just walking, talking the talk and not walking the walk?

And that might be the reason why you don't experience life change in your prayer life. You don't experience life change in being a part of the ministry. You don't experience life change when you don't, you don't want to read your Bible. You don't want to do any of this because you haven't gotten to the nitty-gritty with God. God changed me from the inside out.

With all heads bowed and all eyes closed today, I want to offer that opportunity for someone in here that may not have. Maybe you're someone here that's never made a decision for Christ today. Today you've come to this point, you don't even know why you're here. Maybe something struck you in this message and it's probed your heart. Maybe it was a song we sang earlier and you were like, oh man, I'm really, something's pulling me towards something else.

I need, I have a purpose, Lord. Pull me, I want to find it. The pastor's been talking about this and I just haven't found it. I haven't found that purpose. Today is your day to surrender to Jesus.

What, giving your life to Jesus just means surrender. It's an act of worship. We say, Lord, I've did it my way for so long and today I want to make a decision for you. I'm, today I'm, I'm putting my life in your hands. I'm going to walk with you because no other ways.

If that's you today, I want to pray with you with all heads bowed and all eyes closed. If that's you today, and I'm not going to ask you to, I'm not going to embarrass you or anything like that. I just, we just care. This is why we do this. We want to start you on that one step, that journey, taking that step of faith.

If that's you today, if you would raise your hand and just be bold and say, pastor, I'm in. Pastor, it's time for me to make that decision. Today's the day. Today's the day. We're not promised tomorrow, but we can, we are promised right now because we're living in this moment.

Is that you? Anyone? Everyone? Maybe, maybe you, you made a decision for Christ a long time ago, but you kind of walked away from him and you haven't, you, you, it's time for you to really take, you know, make him your life blood. I mean, just everything about you.

If that's you today, I want to pray for you. Is that you? If you would just boldly raise your hand. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hallelujah. Thank you.

I'm rededicating my life today. I'm, I'm giving it all to you. Hallelujah. Let me pray for you. Dear father, in the name of Jesus, I pray those who, who, who have raised their hand today, who raised, Lord, that, that you would just, your spirit would just penetrate their lives, Lord, that they would just confess themselves to you.

Whether they're rededicating their life, whether they're asking for an extra unction of your Holy Spirit, Lord, whether they're giving your life, their lives to you for the first time, Lord, that, that, that, that they would just, you would just connect with them, Lord, right now. And that we would pray this, dear father, forgive me for I missed the mark. I missed the target, Lord, for so long because of my sin. Come into my heart, come into my life, come into my heart, revive my heart, revive my life, lit it, light up my spirit again. I walked with you through this day forth, Lord, into my purpose.

So I believe in the cross. I believe in Jesus Christ, that he paid it all on the cross, no matter what my sin, whatever, no matter what my mistaken identity is, whatever it is, I give it to you today. And we ask this in your name.