Well, hey, church, let's, uh, let's pray together when we come before you. God, I thank you. We thank you, God, for your goodness in this place. And the, the, the promise of your presence here with the weight of your goodness to be able to celebrate, um, you, to be able to celebrate life change and eternity change. God, it is, it is an overwhelming thing as Lord. We thank you for, I pray that you'll continue to move in this space. You'll continue to move in this time. God, that God, we will hear exactly what it is that you have for us to hear. We pray that the, the words of our mouth at the meditations of our heart will be pleasing, will be acceptable to you, oh Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Amen.

Well, hey, welcome man. I'm so glad that you're here today. Glad that, uh, I get to be here with you. Um, if you hang around here long enough, uh, and hear me say, I, I hope you do okay. Uh, one of the things, uh, you'll hear us say a whole lot is this phrase, you were created on purpose and for a purpose. Now, that's a phrase that's not unique to us. I don't think we made that up, but it is a phrase that is important to who we are as a church, as a people, as a, as a group. Now, you were created on purpose and for a purpose. I think just two weeks ago, our pastor Jeff Clark, said it from this stage. And, and, and look, you're gonna hear us say it a lot more because we believe it, right? We, we believe that it's true. We believe deeply that it's true, and we want this truth to root deeply in your heart, in your mind, in your soul and who you are, that you are created on purpose and for purpose. That regardless of your story, your background, what you feel like you do have or you don't have, regardless of what the world has told you or someone else has tried to convince you of, you are not worthless. You're not meaningless, you're not an accident, but you're beautiful in God's design and purpose.

The Apostle Paul, a man who, who hated Christianity, who hated the church, and the message of Jesus to the point of murder, who was willing to do anything, to stop the spread of the message of Jesus, who eventually became captivated, overwhelmed by the hope, by the grace, by the mercy of Jesus, he wrote us Ephesians, what we call Ephesians, chapter two, verse 10. He says that you are God's handiwork. You're God's craftmanship, your god's beautiful intentional design. I'll tell you all the time that, that, that God puts you together like you are on purpose with, with all of your uniquenesses, with all of your intricacies, with even your weirdness, with your likes, your dislikes, your strengths, your weaknesses. They God put you together on purpose. You are God's handiwork, a beautiful intentional design. And he did so for a reason. Not only did he create you on purpose, but he created you for a purpose. What Paul says there in Ephesians to do good works in or through Christ Jesus, we believe that's true of you, regardless of the choices you've made up until this point, regardless of your story, we believe it's true of the people around you, not just physically in this space or this environment, but but the people around you in life. We believe it's true of the people you like and the people you don't like, the people that look like you, and the people that don't look like you, the people that vote like you, and the people that don't vote like you, the people that are in the same tax bracket as you and the people that aren't. We believe it's true that God has created you. God has created me. God has created them. God has created us on purpose and for purpose.

But what does that purpose look like? What does it mean to do good works in Christ Jesus? I think that is the question that we so often ask. And more importantly, I think that's the question we so often get lost in asking. I I read, um, just a couple of weeks ago, two or three weeks ago, uh, a series of articles that the Harvard Business Review, right? Like we're not just talking about a, a, a question that, that rests in the church. Now we're talking about a question for, for mankind. What is my purpose? What is my calling? What am I supposed to do? The Harvard Business Review just last year put out a whole series of articles all around purpose, and they started the very first article in that series, I think this is really telling, was about finding the purpose of your purpose. And they outlined these like three or four different things that we all have to know and understand and wrestle with these questions we have to answer before we can ever get down to really understand what our purpose is.

And here's my point in that. I think we make this question and this conversation way too complicated. I think we, we make it way too overwhelming. So much so that we get lost in asking the question, well, what does it look like for the church, for believers, for people who are following in the way of Jesus? What does it look like for me to live out, for me to do the good works of Jesus? I think we get lost in asking that question so much so that we never actually move to doing the good things. I I know, man, for me, like that's been a whole lot of my story. Like I, I grew up in church, not, um, a setting quiet like this, a little bit different, uh, but still something man, very important to me and my story. And we didn't really talk a whole lot about like purpose or really even calling. We talked about will, God's will, man, you wanna talk about overwhelming a 12 year old start asking them to figure out what a holy and righteous and sovereign and all knowing God's will is for their life. It overwhelmed me. It paralyzed me in it because for me, and this might not be true of you, but like kind of what, what I started processing was my purpose, or God's will or my calling, well, that must be, if it's for me, then it must be this like one kind of picture, this one beautiful design that God wants me to paint with my life that only, that only I can paint, or that he intends only for me to paint with my life.

And so what happened naturally is this fear kind of began to well up in me of what if I messed that up, right? What if I go to the wrong school? What if I pick the wrong college? Or what if I pick the wrong major? Ended up picking like two or three of those things. What if I date the wrong person? Or what if I wait too long to date or to marry or to have kids? What if I make the wrong business decision? What if I, what if I don't read between the lines in the right way? Then somehow I'm gonna miss a brushstroke. I'm gonna mess the painting or the picture up. I'm gonna leave my purpose or my calling or God's will somehow incomplete in my life and my story and what God has reminded me of, what I want you to see today is that I'm not the one holding the paintbrush, right? Like I don't even get to paint God's the painter, God's the artist. I just gotta trust him to paint in my story and my life.

And so here's what I wanna do, is we kind of dive into this idea of purpose or calling. What does it look like to live out good works and crises that he has designed me, that he's designed you to do? I wanna take this complicated question. I wanna bring it into a more simple space because I think that's where it belongs in, in, in a more simplified space for us. And here's the big idea. If you don't get anything else, okay, here, here's what I want you to see. Where we can go from here is that our purpose and our calling, it has found one yes at a time. I'm gonna show you that in a man's story, a man, the Bible calls Andrew. We're gonna look at three different passages in the gospel of John all dealing with Andrew. And here's what I want you to see through Andrew's story, the power of the yes. And I want you to see three pitfalls that so often keep us from saying yes to the purpose, the works that God has for us, and three principles that will help us say yes. Okay? Three pitfalls, three principles as we look to say yes to the purpose that God has for us.

All right, John chapter one, John chapter one, starting in, uh, verse 35 says this, the next day, again, John being John the Baptist, John the Baptist was standing with two of his disciples. That means students. And he looked at Jesus as he walked by and he said, behold, look, pay attention. There he is. There is the lamb of God. The two disciples, the two students who heard him say this, they followed after they ran after Jesus. And so Jesus turned and he saw them following, saw them running. And he said to them, what is it that you're seeking? What are you looking for? And they said to him, rabbi, which means teacher, we need somebody to teach us. Where are you staying? And so Jesus said to them, come on and you'll see, I'll show you. And so they came and they saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day. For it was about the 10th hours. Late in the afternoon, one of the two who heard John speaking followed after Jesus was Andrew, here's our boy Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon. And he said to him, we have found the Messiah, which means Christ. And so he brought him to Jesus, and Jesus looked at him and said, you're a Simon, the son of John. You shall be called sifu, which means Peter.

Now Andrew, Andrew is one of my favorite personalities in, in all of scripture. He really is because he is largely unknown. We don't know a whole lot about Andrew. He is, he is in the background of a lot of things. As a matter of fact, one author called Andrew, many authors have called Andrew the insignificant apostle, which is funny to me because like he is an apostle. He is one of the 12 men that Jesus hand selected to be his apprentice, to be his student, to be his follower, one of the 12 men that would be foundational to the building, to the establishment of the New Testament Church. This thing that you and I are part of centuries later, like this dude isn't insignificant in the outcome of his life, but he's insignificant in a lot of ways in his personality. See, the world knows in history, knows Andrew by who he is not. Did you catch it in the story? See, every single time Andrew's name is mentioned in the Bible, except for one, I'll show you that in just a minute. It's written the exact same way. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. That's how Andrew was known, not because of who he was, but because of who he wasn't. He wasn't his brother. Everybody got that sibling. That man just owns the room when they walk in. You got that coworker that everybody just wants to be around that classmate that is always a center of attention. And that was Peter for Andrew. Peter was the bold one. Peter was the ambitious one. Peter was the leader. He was the one that carried the charisma, right? Peter was the one that when they walked into a room together, he was high fiving everybody. Everybody wanted to be around him. Andrew. See, Andrew was the guy that was on the couch petting the dog while everybody else was outside hanging out. You tracking with me on that? He wasn't his brother. And everybody knew it, and everybody reminded him of it.

Here's the first pitfall I want you to see. One of the most dangerous things to keep us from living out our purpose in God, the good works that he's created us for, is comparison. This is what social media does. This is what Hollywood does. This is what culture does to us, right? It reminds us of who we aren't and what we don't have and what we can't do because someone else can. This is what comparison does. Comparison listen. Comparison will minimize your effectiveness by magnifying your weaknesses. It'll minimize your effectiveness by magnifying your weaknesses. It puts the spotlight on all the things you can't, you, you don't have. You shouldn't do it magnifies that so much so that you begin to think, well, of course I can't do that. Well, of course I can't live the life that they have. Of course, I can't be effective. Of course, I can't make that because, man, look at what I don't have. Look at, look at my background, look at my story.

Can I listen? Let me just relieve some of that pressure for you, okay? In this space and in this family, it's okay to have weaknesses. As a matter of fact, lemme say it a diff, it's okay to acknowledge your weaknesses because we all have 'em. We all have struggles, we all have challenges. And it's okay to acknowledge that in this space because without that, we're never gonna, we're never gonna understand the power and the, the purpose that God has for us. Here's what's not okay. It's not okay, or at least it's dangerous. It's dangerous to begin to find your identity in those weaknesses and in those challenges. Well, I am. If you are anything other than a child of God, you, you, you've missed it. Well, I don't have, or I can't. Those are identities rooted in a weakness that God has not intended for you to define yourself by.

Can I just like, man, the enemy is quick to remind me of this in my story. I, I said this earlier and like, I shouldn't be here. And the enemy reminds me of that constantly. Like, I don't belong here. I grew up in Soso, Mississippi. If you don't know where Soso is, there's probably a reason you don't know where Soso is. When I grew up, we did not have a single red light in. So we still don't have a red light in Soso for that matter. Um, but growing up we did have three liquor stores, right? Like in a stretch of road that couldn't even put a red light on it. We had three liquor stores I grew up with, not by her choice. I grew up with a single mom who, who had to raise two children in Soso, Mississippi. We didn't have a whole lot, okay? But before I could drive, I was much closer to being an alcoholic than I was a pastor. Like, I know I should be a statistic. I should not be on stage. I did not have the money, the education, the back. When I look around at my contemporaries and the people that do what I do, maybe, maybe you don't struggle with this in life, but hey, look, here it is. Here's me acknowledging some of my struggles in my weaknesses. I do this a lot. When I look around at my contemporaries, man, I see it, it is highlighted for me. Hey, you don't have Kyle, you don't have the background. You don't have the story, you don't have the education, you don't have the money, you don't have the knowledge. You don't have the charisma. You don't have the skills that they do.

And by the grace of God, here's your first principle. God uses who we are not. Thank God I don't have those things because if I did, again, this is me and my story. If I did, I, I know my tendency would be to trust those things more than I trust God. But because I don't, I have to trust him. God uses who we are not because when God works in and through us, despite us, then he receives the glory. And glory is a thing that you and I we were never intended to carry. We can't handle the weight of it. Comparison.

Lemme show you the next one, John, chapter six. Next story. We see Andrew's name mentioned in this gospel, John chapter six, probably, or, or maybe a, a familiar, uh, miracle or story for you. Jesus feeds a at least over 5,000 people in one moment. He, here's a little piece of that story that John gives us. John chapter six, verse five. It says, lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him. Jesus said to Philip, where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat? He's that compassion only wanted to feed him. Jesus said this to test him for, he himself knew what he would do, but Philip answered him 200 Dary, that's, that's almost a year's worth of salary. 200 dary worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get even a little one of his disciples. Here it is again, notice it. Andrew comma, Simon Peter's brother Andrew, not that guy, but the little guy, Andrew said to him, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many, I love that question. What are they for so many, because it's an honest question. That's what I love about it, man, is a real question. I don't know what this can do. Hey, I don't know what kind of difference I can make. Hey, I don't have the answers. Hey, I don't, I I don't know how to step into this. What am I, what are these for so many? And yet, Andrew, here's what I want you to see. Andrew didn't let the doubt present in that stop him from bringing the offering to Jesus. And it wasn't offering. It was an offering. He laid at the feet of Jesus said, I know it's not enough, but it's what I got. And so I'm gonna give you what I got because I know you can do immeasurably more than I could ever think or imagine.

Doubt is a pitfall that will keep us from living out the purpose God has for us. And I think doubt, doubt and faith oftentimes have very similar innings. And what the, the difference in them most of the time is, is do we stop with it or not? Let me give you an example. I have a friend. I mean, my friend is hurting. His life is a mess. His marriage is broken. He hates work. His kids hate him. And I don't know how to help him. I don't have the answers. I have no idea what to do for him. And so I'm just gonna avoid the awkwardness. Maybe we invite him over to the cookout, maybe not. If we do, I'm not gonna broach any of that. See, that's doubt. Now, here's what faith does. Faith says, man, I got a friend that man, his life is broken. His, his, his marriage is in shambles. He hates work. His kids hate him. I have no earthly idea what to do. I have no earthly idea how to help him, but God, I'm gonna pray for him. God, I'm, I am gonna invite him over for dinner and I'm gonna let him know I'm praying for him. And maybe, maybe, God, maybe you'll give me some words to speak encouragement to him. See, that's faith started in the same place, but I did something totally different with it. You see, doubt, doubt is where we settle for the mundane and faith. Faith is where we experience the miracles of life.

Nobody would've blamed Andrew. I mean, Philip said it. I've got no idea how to feed him. Nobody would've blamed Andrew for saying, hey, here's a couple of pieces of sandwich, but that's not gonna do anything. So let me just keep it back here. Hey, my life is, is I, I I don't know what to do. So I I I'm not gonna make a difference. So let me just keep my, my story back here. What are they for so many, and the answer, honestly, the answer for Andrew, the answer for us, what is my story? What is my life? What is my ability? What is my presence For so much pain or so many problems or, or a friend's story, the answer's kind of the same. It's nothing. That bread and that fish shouldn't have made a difference. My story, my presence, it shouldn't make a difference. It's just a drop in the bucket. That's the beautiful thing about the power of God is that a drop in the hands of God can become a waterfall that changes everything.

So how do we push back against doubt? Here's our second principle. Talk to yourself, but don't listen to yourself. Talk to yourself, but don't listen to yourself. Now, here's what I mean by that. We know that our thoughts are powerful, right? And listen, when I when I say that, I don't mean like in, in like a, a, a manifesting way, right? Like I don't mean well go make up your storyboard and, and, and think on and manifested into reality. That's not what I'm saying. Your thoughts aren't gonna create realities, but they will create truths in your heart and in a fallen and a broken world, our thoughts naturally drift to what has fallen. What has broken. Hey, listen, those thoughts you have, you're not the only one that has them. You're not that anxiety, that worry, that stress. You're not the only one. And I don't mean that to say like you're not especially your god's handy. What what I'm trying to tell you is that man in a fallen, in a broken world, all of our thoughts are naturally gonna drift to those fallen in broken places. That's why scripture constantly reminds us to take hold of those things, right? To take every thought captive, it says to, to intentionally dwell on, to think on, to put in our mind the things that are good, the things that are pure, the things that are holy, the things that are righteous, the things that are of God. It says to not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but to be transformed by the renewal of our mind, by how we think, by what we put in our mind.

Don't listen to yourself, but talk to yourself even when you're not feeling it, man, read the promises of God and remind yourself with intentionality of God's goodness in God's presence in your life. Get a notebook. Get a couple of pieces of paper and take three minutes every morning and write three things you're thankful for, to remind yourself of God's presence. Go for a walk. Take five minutes at lunch or in the morning and, and walk around your house or your, your office building or the school, wherever you are, and be intentional about thinking about and noticing the beautiful things of God's presence in God's power. Talk to yourself intentionally. Remind yourself of God's presence and power. Don't let your thoughts drown you in doubt. Talk to yourself.

There's one more I wanna show you. Comparison doubt. Both of those will keep us from, from saying yes to God, from, from, from being present in the, the purpose that God has for us. The good works that he has for us. Lemme show you one more, John, chapter 12, verse 20. It says, now, among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Beseda in Galilee, and they asked him, sir, we wish to see Jesus. So Philip went and told Jesus, no. Philip went and told Andrew and Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Now, did you notice how things changed right there? This is the first time in all of scripture that we see Andrew's name not connected to Peter. He's no longer at this point, the end of the story. He's no longer Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He is simply Andrew. Why not because he did anything extravagant? Not because he finally made it to college, not because his business succeeded and he had all the money. No know he has been available to be used by God in story after story in Andrew, the presence of God in Andrew's life overwhelms who he wasn't compared to his brother.

Now, to understand the significance of this moment, okay, you need to kinda understand the context of what's going on and what says that, that, uh, some Greeks came up to the feast. What's happening here is that Jesus and the apostles have entered into Jerusalem, one of the largest cities with the largest Jewish population for one of the largest and most important Jewish festivals, the Feast of the Passover. And so what that means, just for context for you, is that things are crazy around them. This is graduation weekend on steroids. This is Little League. World Series has come to town. Hotels are full, restaurants are full. Can't nobody get down the street. Kids are running the roads. It's anarchy, right? Like it's just chaos. There are parties to get to, there's festivals to get to, there's block parties to get to, there's meals to plan and prep. There's a lot going on. They're busy and busyness is deadly to our purpose and to what God has called us to.

Now, if I'm Andrew in this moment, I know me again, my tendency, I'm busy, I get hyper focused on what I'm doing right now, right? Don't get in my way. I need to achieve this thing. I need to check this box off. I need to get done with this thing. And so when you come and you interrupt me, my tendency, my natural tendency is to just say, Philip, you go do it. Bear you know where Jesus is. Hey, you just dropped the ball on the whole feeding of the 5,000 thing, like you had a chance. Here's a second chance. Go do something good, but Andrew doesn't. He says, yes, let me take you. He's got time for one more to take him to Jesus. Here's your third principle. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, be available. Be available to what God has in front of you.

Now, as we roll into to summertime, likely your schedules are changing, right? There's some things kind of shifting around you. You got kids, maybe they're at home now. You can't get anything done cuz they're right up under you and you feel like you're always busy. You're always fighting somebody because you are always fighting them, right? You got vacation to go to the, the, the wife's invited people over for you to grill. You're behind at work. Like there's a lot going on, right? Let me clarify one thing for us. One, I want you to know this activity in and of itself isn't the enemy. Unavailability is there's a difference there. Now listen, you need to rest. I feel like I can say that confidently about almost everyone. You need to rest. You need to find Sabbath one day a week. You need to pull away from all the things that are going on. You need to quit striving. You need to quit running after something and you need to rest in the power and the goodness of God. He called us to it, right? You need to sabbath, you need to rest the other six days. Though I'm not saying that you should post up, put your feet up and do nothing cuz that's, that tends to be how we swing that pendulum, right? No, it's okay to have the activity. It's okay to be doing, it's okay to be busy so long as it doesn't take our availability away. So long as we are available in the moment.

Well, I got soccer practice, I've got a baseball tournament. Uh, somebody I think is supposed to be going to dance like there's a lot going on. Listen, you can be available in those moments. Well, we got friends coming over for lunch. I'm supposed to be cooking and we, we've got vacation planned in a couple weeks. Listen, you can be available in those moments, like when you're at the ball field. I mean, you can be available to see the, the parents sitting at the stands where man depression is just weighing on them. Can you be available to, to speak a word of hope on vacation? You can be available to, to pray for the wait staff at the restaurant. This is where I real man, this is where I want us to press in. Okay? This is where I want you to lean in and wrestle for just a moment. Are you available? Does God have your yes? Because that is where we find purpose. Remember, our purpose is found one yes at a time. Are you willing to say yes? Are you willing to say yes to linger in that uncomfortable conversation just a little bit longer because walls are beginning to come down? Are you willing to say yes to invite a, a neighbor over for dinner? Are you willing to say yes to reconnect with a friend you hadn't seen in a while? Are you willing to say yes, to invite someone to come to church with you?

Your purpose is found one yes at a time in the Old Testament, Abraham, before he can live out his purpose to be the father of a nation, he had to say yes to a move David King David, a man after God's own heart. Before he could live out his purpose to be the king of a nation. He had to say yes to take a meal to his brothers who really didn't like him. Peter, before Peter could live out his purpose, to preach a thousands of people at Pentecost and see the New Testament church born in an instant, Peter had to say yes to an invitation from his brother. Our purpose is found when yes, at a time. So will you say yes?

Now here's what we're gonna do at, at all of our campuses. Um, our team's gonna come. They're gonna begin to lead us in a time of worship. And this is a chance, man, for you to wrestle with where your yes is. We're gonna sing man. We're gonna proclaim that we're available to be used by God. But here's my challenge for you. As you say those words, you gotta ask, is that true of my heart? Am I available for what God has for me? Am I comparing? Am I, am I busy? If I let doubt rule the day for me or will I say yes to what God has for me? Now the invitation is open, right? That's kinda the point of this moment. God is inviting you to experience him, to no, to love to follow him. Maybe, maybe for you, the invitation to say yes to for the very first time is to give your life to him. Say, I'm not gonna pursue my ways, but your ways. God, maybe that's where you are, but you have been distracted, you've been busy. You, you, you've let doubt rule today and you need to lay that down. But we're gonna sing man. We're gonna worship guy and I just want to invite you to wrestle with that, with God. Are you available?

Let me pray for us and then we'll move into a time of worship and response. Lord, we want to give you all that we have in this moment. Every question, every concern, every doubt, every distraction. We wanna lay it down in front of you. God, if there are things in our heart and our minds that are keeping us from being available to you to saying yes to what you have in front of us, Lord, I pray that you'll break us up even if you have to pry it from our hands. Cuz there's nothing better than your presence. Lord, you are good. God you are gracious, you're loving. I'm gonna pray that, that we will be able to rest in that in this time. Guide us, Lord, use us, move in this place. All things we ask in your name, amen.