It's very interesting. I share with you all last week that over 60 million copies of a pastor Rick Warren's book, the purpose driven life have sold and [inaudible] and it's the second most translated book in the world. Only second to the Bible. The Bible is the most translated book in the world.
Second to that in the world, the most translated book piece of literature that we read is the purpose driven life and I reveal to you all that is really interesting because what that tells me is that there are a lot of people that are on this quest to understand and discover why do I exist there ? There are, there are millions of people in this world that bought this book trying to figure out, God, I know that there's a purpose for me.
It's not tied up in my job is not tied up in what I'm doing right now is not tied up in the friends that I'm hanging with. It's not tied up in the church that I'm going to. There is something more important for me to do. It's not tied up in my possessions. So 60 million plus people bought this book, read this book. Why? Because they want to know why am I here on this earth? Why do I exist and that's just the people who who bought the book.
We're not counting the time that they shared it with their neighbor, gave it to a friend or or they did a church-wide , a purpose-driven study. We're not talking about that. Millions of people in this world like you and I are trying to figure out what is my contribution to this thing called life because everything that I have is not enough. I'm still trying to feel this void. I'm still trying to feel this void. Can I share with you what I think the reason is?
People are searching for their purpose in life. This, this is, this is, this is not biblical so don't accuse me of Harris C or anything like that. This is just, you know the book according to Broderick. This is what I think. I think that many of us are searching near and far digging deep, trying to discover what our purpose is. Why? Because we want to feel significant. We're doing this because we're searching for significance. Do I matter?
Does what I do matter does where I go count, we want significance and I'm not talking about you want fame. No, no, no, no, no. You want to be significant. You want to be noticed by what you've done. You want to be noticed by your accomplishments. You want to be know . Some of us, you know like to be noticed when we step into a room and some of us want to be noticed by, by, by where we work in and who we're affiliated with.
We want to be noticed by the Greek letter organization that we're a part of. We want to be noticed by the the college we attended. We want to be notice where that my brothers and sisters, it's not the significance that most of the people in the world seek. We just want to be counted. This is why so many of us like me and you and and, and others outside of this room are searching for their purpose here on earth. Today I'm just going to give you four easy steps to get you started on the journey.
I'm just going to get you started. Here's what I know. If I do this right with the help of God, if I do this right, we go end up somewhere and , and , and, and, and the light bulb is going to go off in your spirit and in your head there's a, there's a , uh , a quote. Now, some attribute this quote to Mark Twain and some say it's a Nigerian proverb. I'm just going to say it's unknown cause I don't know.
You know, there's, but there's this quote I wanna I want to , I want this to be our leading point. Here's this quote, watch this. He says to most the most, the two most important days of your life are the day you were born. And the day you find out why the two most important days of your life are the day you were born. And the day you find out why. A lot of us say the two most important days are the day you were born in the day you die.
Know the day you find out why you were born, the two most important days of your life. And I want to help you discover that today. I want to help you get on that journey. I'm not going to tell you what it is. I'm not God only he can do that, but I want you to begin to take these steps. Here's the first step. The four steps to discover is what we're going to call this. Here's the, here's the first step I want to share with you all you ready?
The first step is number one, if you're taking notes, you should have them there. It says this. The first step is pay attention to what others say about you. Pay attention to what others say about you. Now, let me, let me, let me get the negative stuff out the way. First, be careful of false profits though because some people speak into your life and they do. Speaking.
A good friend of mine, one of my closest friends in ministry, I remember when he and his wife were expecting their very first child and they, and they went to this , this particular church, and , uh, the pastor walks up to him and says, Oh yes , all y'all expecting your first child. Oh , hold on. Yeah. You know, I'm a prophetess. And so she laid hands on that belly. She says , Oh yes Lord, it's a boy. I can tell it, I can tell it's a boy. And my boy was, my man was all excited.
He's like, yeah, it's a boy. And he did, but the pastor didn't know that within two weeks they would find out the sex of the baby. So they're excited like yeah, you know she's a prophetess. She just prophesied over us as a , if we're going to have a boy, I'm proud of my name him someone so junior and he's going to play football. Like I played football and do what he said he went to the doctor, did the ultrasound or sonogram and there was nothing there.
And my man said, wait a minute now Ken , can you make the baby flip? Cause maybe, maybe he got it tucked or something like that. Can you flip it and make the , I want to see cause you've gotta be wrong because the lady said, I'm having a boy. And the doc says, listen, that baby can swim. Flip upside down. Ain't nothing there. You having a girl, congratulations. Be careful who you let speak over you. Not everybody is a prophet, but he , here's some signs to look for.
Watch this and discovering your purpose. Four steps to discovery wise. Here's some things you can look for people that that that have been saying something that's constant. People that are not connected to one another. People that don't know you don't know anything about each other, but they're saying the same thing about you. There's a certain thing about you. There's a certain gift that God has placed in you and people constantly saying the same thing.
They're they're , they're really just affirming what God is saying. Here's a perfect example. When I was a little boy, you know, they always said, man, you go , you know this. This is something special about this boy. He gone, he gone be somebody and, and what ? What does that mean? Everybody's somebody, right? What the heck does that mean? I'm going to be somebody, everybody, somebody, but what does that mean? But as I got older, people began to define what I would be.
People would say, man, you are a natural born leader. What does that mean? I, I didn't understand that. But then I realized as I looked over my career, every job I've ever had, I may have started in fee level, but within a short period of time I was a manager. So I was a natural leader, but I didn't know that. And then it got to a point where when I became a Christian , uh , there was a brother by the name of rev , Reverend Al Delaney who said, man, you need to pick up the phone.
And I said , what phone are you? What are you talking about? You know, you are called to pastor. You must be crazy. You don't know my dirt, my dirty and regular dirt. This is some real kind of dirty, dirty, toxic dirt. You can't possibly be talking about me with my dirt . You talking about another Broderick more recent Tiago, even though I'm the only one next to jr , you can't be talking about me. And then another sister, her name was pastor Cynthia, she says, you have a calling on your life.
It's an opera. Stylic calling over your life. And I was like, what is opera stylic even mean? What does that mean? I pastology that sounded like I got a disease or something. You can't be talking about me. He says , you got an opera stolid calling on your life. And I researched and I was like, Oh, like Paul, he was, he was out make building churches and he was preaching the word and he just did it shamelessly. Nah, that can't be me because I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm new to this.
I grew up in a household where we didn't go to church. I didn't even believe in God. At one point I was, I was like a 5% or , and then from 5% I became a Sunni Muslim. So, nah, not me, not to kid . But these people who spoken to my life early on, they saw something that I didn't, I wasn't supposed to see until the time was right until the season was right. And then here I am just attending church and trying to put together a worship band from our previous church.
And that church was a church plant . Wait, hold on. Paul. Was a church planner. I'm going somewhere. She was Elian . People had been saying certain things about your gift and it's consistent and listen to what these people are saying because right there that now that may not be it. That may not be your purpose. That may not be your gift, but that's a starting point. Began listening. Watch this . Somebody told you, you know what? Don't nobody cook like you cook. You can cook.
You cook and bring folks to Jesus. You cook and people run the salvation the way you cook . You make me a hole that goes dance and everybody said that, that show ministry. Somebody may say, you agreed already. You're a great speaker. Nobody can speak and teach the way you teach. You're a great singer. You're you . You're supposed to start a certain nonprofit. You all have a gift and you begin to listen to what people say. But be careful because somebody that says something totally different.
You ain't never heard that before yet. If false prophet .
Yeah .
Somebody. If somebody were to tell me, man, brother, I see it in you. You got the gift of may you go brother, I can tell just by looking at you, you can hoop. You got the wrong person. Cause if you won't listen, I'm gonna tell you right now, if there's a basketball game going on and they're calling pin, you pick in teams. If you, if you want to win, you don't pick me. You don't pick me. I can't guarantee a win. I'm gonna play D. I might get one or two layups, but that's it now.
But if you want some good music, you better skip over every other musician besides Tina and called me. I said, besides you . So call you first ladies first and then call me if she can't do it. Amen. I have my gift. I know what I'm supposed to do. I know this is where I'm supposed to be. Why? Because many people spoken into my life. Here's the second point. We go move along because later on there's some stuff I really want to spend some time on. Here's the second point I want to tell you.
The first step is pay attention to what others say about you. The second thing you should do is listen to your passions. Listen to your passions there something right now, let me ask you this. I asked this last week if money wasn't an object, what would you do for the rest of your life? One brother shouted out with paint . Somebody else said, I would. I would do this and whatever . What would you do for the rest of your life if , if you , you would do it for free because it matters that month .
What would you do for the rest of your life? That is where your passion is. What moves you to do something to respond? What does that burning thing aside? There was a brother in the old Testament by the name of Nehemiah. This brother had like a good government job, I mean good benefits. He was the first director to , to the King.
I mean he was the had it going on, but he heard that , that that that a wall that is his people that built many years ago was destroyed and a steel after many decades had not rebuilt the wall. So he went and did a serve . Any of like what? Gibbs. Y'all are talented enough. Y'all are beautiful. Y'all are strong enough. You know what? I'm making good money. I'm doing well for myself, but you know what? I'm gonna um , this is my new purpose. I'm going to go and fix this.
I'm passionate about these people. I'm passionate about my people. I'm passionate about, about where I'm at in my life. I'm passionate about who I represent. Perhaps your passion is music or, or perhaps your passion is cooking. You've been, you know, you might be working a certain job today and you hate it. You miserable. You wake up on Monday. Matter of fact, you, you love today is Sunday, but you hate best Sunday ends because that leads to tomorrow, which is Monday cause you hate going there.
You hate dealing with the people there. You're not happy there . You're not fulfilled and you get to this place called job, right. And you sit in this place called job and you do your job well, but the whole time you're looking at the clock because you can't wait to get out of your job. But your passion is that thing that wakes you up in the middle of the night and you grab your notepad and start writing.
The passion is that thing that you, you, you, you eating with your, with your wife or your or your fiance and you just can't stop talking about every conversation is around this one thing that just got you on fire on the inside. Your passion is that thing that you just eat, sleep and do all the time. What are thinking about your passion is a thing that you would do even if you didn't get paid to do it.
I remember when I stepped out to pursue music full time, I was making probably the best money I'd ever made in my life. At the time I was a manager at 18 T corporate. My team was one of the top teams. We were selling local telephone service in New York. It was a brand new service they were offering at the time. I was killing them . I kept getting bonuses. I was taking trips and the benefits. Baby woo . I remember I went into the store, man, the division place and got me some new glasses.
They were like $300 I pay 50 bucks for them . The benefits were that dope. I was like, this is good. But that wasn't enough. I was not satisfied. And then one of my buddies from college says, man, you know what? Let's cut a CD. I'm a file finance , the whole deal. And Rio Negro, my band, my Latin jazz man , we did our first CD and it felt good being back on the road again cause I hadn't been on the road in a long time. I mean years. And I got back on that road.
I says, man, I want to do this again for the rest of my life. And in my pop, some of y'all met my pop, my pop said, man , do it if you want, go get paid because guess what? The money will follow it. And I stepped out there on faith and it was definitely faith and the very first job I got was at church and they will pay me well at that church, you know? And then after that Rio Negro, we cut the CD.
Then we started going on tour and then it was all kind of money up until I started preaching full time. I was a full time musician. That's how I paid for and let me say that again. I was a full time musician and my wife wasn't working full time. Why? Because I pursued my passion, not the money. I pursued the passion, not the money. I wasn't in it for the money. I was in it because I love to do it and guess what else happened ?
I was able to go on the mission field places where we didn't speak the same language, but if I saw something that looked like a drum, I grab that and begin to hit and they were speaking a different language than I was and we didn't understand until the , but we knew hallelujah. We knew amen .
And we just started worship and I'm playing the drums and net plan the guitars and they're singing in their language and I'm playing and singing in my language, but we will worshiping together with the thing. That was my passion that I've been able to bless other people with watch what happened. God took my passion, put me in a place called courageous church many years ago to start a ministry there, to build a worship ministry there.
Took that thing right and from there I discovered that no brother, you're supposed to be your own pastor of a church. You do have an opposite Olic calling. You are supposed to plant a church in the city of Mapleton. He took what I thought was my passion and showed me what my real purpose was. Oh man, I'm a preach day . Can I tell y'all something? Your passion and your purpose are interconnected. Your passion and your purpose are interconnected.
Somebody I know several somebodies going to , can I just say a few names of people that have a passion for a certain thing and they stepped out on faith and right now, guess what their complaint is? I got more business than I can handle. Can I? Can I, can I tell you about a sister by the name of a Kiko who was working a job who started out, she said she was working a job. She stepped out on her own. Now she makes these meals fit box meals is what it's called.
So for those brothers and sisters that want to eat healthy, that's working out, a lot of times she does fit box meals. Right, and right now she got more business that she can handle. Can I tell you about a sister by the name of Tina deli young who stepped out on faith? She was working in the health care in the health industry, if you will, work in that G and C trying to do these other jobs, but she stepped out on faith and she's got more business that she can even handle right now.
God , I can tell you, I can keep going on and on about people in this room who stepped out on faith and and pursued their passing and realize that their passion was connected to their purpose. That's not me . That's that's , that's God. Their passion is interconnected with your purpose. I'm , I went way too long on that. Let me share some scripture with you. Also, y'all can feel like y'all in church today. All right .
Hey, if you have a Bible, jump with me to collagen's one verses 24 25 I gotta get somewhere, so I'm gonna rush through this. I got to get somewhere Colassians one 24 and 25 it's , it's in your notes. Watch this. Watch this. Watch this. This is Paul talking to the people in colicy.
He says, I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you. Why was Paul passionate? Can I tell you why he saw a better future for them? Why does a Kiko get up at four o'clock in the morning? She sees a better future for her and her family and she sees how she could also benefit the body of Christ with her job.
Why does Tina good ? All she gives and gets all the certificates she can to be the best workout coats there ever was. Why? Because she sees something bigger than many of us cannot see. And here's what happens. When you step out and begin pursuing your purpose, you're going to have a whole bunch of naysayers. Oh, you gonna what you gonna do that? Oh , people. People will remind you of your pass . People gonna remind me, reminds you of the last I said me. I must be talking to myself.
People go remind you of the last time you stepped out and started a business and it failed. People go remind you of you where you've come from. They're gonna remind you of your sins. People will remind you of the last time you had a bright idea and it didn't work out. But don't you let that stop you baby? Because God has a plan greater than any of your enemies can see bigger than what your family can see bigger than what your naysayers can see. You'll just need to stay connected to God.
Hello , Milo .
Don't you worry about them? They a matter of fact, if they're not talking about you, maybe you on the wrong track.
Jaylen ,
you want them talking about you. That means you're doing something right, baby. You keep on going. Why was Paul so passionate? Because he saw a better future. Watch this. Watch this. I'm gonna jump over to collagen's two , one and three. This is not in your notes, but just , just listen to this. Watch this. I want you to know how much I have agonized for you. How many, how many of you who step out on faith agonize over your dream and your passion.
It wakes you up and you agonize over because you see something greater. Even Brandon who stepped out on faith and started this new , uh , insurance business and is doing well. Come on now. I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea and for many other believers who have never met me personally. I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them now. He's telling you why he's passionate. This is why I'm passionate. I want them .
I'm do all that is I take all of his grief. I'll take all of this pain because I want y'all to come together. I see greater for you. I see greater for you. You may not see, but I see it in you. I want more for you. This is why I agonize. This is why I'm in jail. This is why I take the beatings. This is why I'm persecuted. This is why I'm running away because I see greater, and this is why some of y'all stay up all night because this passion keeps burning inside of you.
You're not looking for a paycheck. You're trying to pursue your purpose. I want to remind God told me to remind you of that this morning. I gotta I gotta get somewhere. I gotta go . I gotta get somewhere. I gotta get somewhere. Let's jump on to number three. I know I'm rushing through this, but I gotta get somewhere because there's some good stuff coming. Number three, who this is good, somebody's gonna get this. I might get a show . Your frustration may be an indication of what your purpose is.
Your frustration. Come on now may be an indication of what your purpose is. I chose this video if you were here to see it. I chose this video for reason. Dr Robert and emergency, an ER doctor probably making tons of money, but in making all of that money, how many people were coming in? I don't have insurance. I, I'm sorry doc, but I don't have insurance. I don't have insurance doc. It bothered him. It frustrated the H out of him. I'm not going to say the word. Don't make me do it.
It bothered him and moved him to do something about it and his purpose was revealed in that frustration. His purpose was to start a clinic and offer health care to everybody. No body's denied. I mentor 43 boys in this community. Y'all know why I do that? Cobb County loves to brag about how great their school systems are.
Cobb County loves to, I mean, when you look at the state of Georgia and you Google something and you look up for great education, Cobb County is one of the first counties of pop up there. We brag about it. Oh, but here's a secret. Y'all don't know. They don't talk about South car. They don't let you know about South carb where we're two of the high schools in this community have a high school dropout rate over 50%. I'm Tyler. I'm tired of hearing a story about young black men can't be changed.
And I'm tired of hearing that. I'm afraid of young black men. I'm tired of hearing that young black men are in this , uh , a prison pipeline, whatever they call it . I'm tired of hearing this story. I'm tired of hearing that the chivalry is dead. I'm tired of hearing that these boys don't have goals and because a daddy is going there , they are hopeless. I'm tired of hearing that they're frustrated me.
So instead of being on the sidelines, I got up and said, you know what, I was mentored in upstate New York, grew up in the projects, could have ended up like any of my friends, but somebody saw
me, saw a difference in me, took the time to tell me, let me tell you something, boy, you are special. You are unique. You are not like them. He put a globe in my hand. He said, what's in your hand? I said, a globe. He said, no, no, no, no, no. You're not getting it. What's in your hand? What's underneath those fingers? I said, I don't know. Whatever continent was there. He says, no, you're not getting it. Let me tell you something. My nickname is Brawny . He said, let me tell you something.
[inaudible]
you had the world in your hands anywhere on this globe. You want to go, you can go, but you got to believe it. I believe in you. Your thinking is too big for this small city. We live in. Woo .
All he had to do was tell me that, and I had an active father in my life and everything my father ever said was beautiful, wonderful and never nobody could replace it. But what pearly Jones said to me in that conversation was the thing that changed my life. It changed the people I was hanging with. It changed what I was doing with my life. It made me care about my life and currently wasn't lying. I won't say that pearly was a prophet, but he said that, and I did that as a musician.
I've seen, not all of the world, but a lot of the world as a minister in the mission field, I've seen a lot of the world. Pearly said I was going to do it. I had to believe I could do it and
leaved it and I've done it. And every little boy that I speak to today, I had that same conversation. I take that globe right here in this school. I've done it. Ms Josephy . Uh, she's a teacher of a class of boys. I did that same conversation with them right there in your hands. Is this globe the world? You can go anywhere you want. Literally, nobody can tell you you can't go to a certain place unless there's war going on. They will prevent you, but otherwise you can go wherever you want to go.
Do you believe it?
This is why I do what I do with these boys because I'm frustrated and tired of hearing that they can. I'm frustrated and tired of hearing the South cops sucks. I'm frustrated and tired of hearing that , that that we are the red headed stepchild of Cobb County. I'm sick and tired of it, and so it moves
me to step into my purpose. Are y'all getting this so far? When I talk about purpose, none of it has to do anything with you.
Oh , we'll talk about that next week. Y'all got to come back. It's going to be good. Y'all purpose has nothing to do with you, but it has everything to do with blessing. Somebody else.
Woo
has nothing to do with you . It's not so you can get rich . It's not so you can have bleeding. You already have a good life. It's to help give somebody else hope, great life.
But it's to honor God. Here . Here's my final point and we to listen. I like to be on time and get you all out of here. Nehemiah, like I said earlier, his frustrations drove him to pursue his purpose wasn't about the money. Most of the , let's talk about money for a minute. Just in case y'all want to leave after I say what I'm gonna say to exit. Is that where that way cause this is, this is going to shut some people down.
When you step out to pursue your purpose, chances are it's not going to be a lot of money tied to it. I'm sorry. Oh, y'all still here? Good. When you step out and began pursuing your God given purpose, there won't be a lot of money tied to it. I got, I got some good news though. Watch this. But you won't have to worry about money because prevision follows purpose. When you step out there and pursue your purpose, you don't have to worry about money because provision follows purpose. Huh ?
When I step , listen, I've said this before, but it's not the case now. I've said this before. When we first started this church plant, we didn't have a planning partner. There was no church sister church, that planet mosaic church. We were part of an organization that helped us launch, but we had to borrow money from them. I'm just going to tell the truth, huh? Nobody gave us none. We had to borrow to make this happen and it's not like a a bank loan.
It's, it's a , we give you money to plant, but then you give back so that other churches can plant. That's all that was, right, so salary. Yeah, that wasn't, that wasn't something that was going to happen right away from me and my wife wasn't working full time, but guess what? We got a nice house. Kids affair . We got insurance finally this year. Thank you president Barack Obama. I don't care what you say. I don't care what you say.
You can say everything else, but when it comes to that part, I'm going to argue with you because I'm a benefactor of those benefits. I got health insurance. Finally. My family does ain't ashamed to say it on the podcast. I'm excited about that. We're taking care of, we're doing well. Watch this. What did I say before? This church has not missed a Sunday that we didn't plan on Mason. I'm missing. We've had church every Sunday. God provides our needs.
Isn't it amazing that we have less givers than we've ever had in the history of this church, but we have surplus
Janet Taylor .
I can't take credit. You can't. Only he can. When you pursue your purpose, provision will follow it . Amen. All right. Here's my final point that we're going to wrap this up. This is, this is, this is good. Watch this. Here's your final point. Ready? So we're going to go. Let me do recap so y'all know where we are . One, pay attention to what others say about you. Number two, listen to your passions.
Number three, your frustration may be an indication of what your purpose is, and here's my final point. You ready? Listen to your gifts. Listen to your gifts. First Peter four verses 10 and 11 says this, God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have a gift of speaking?
Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you, that you have the gift of helping others do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ, all glory and power to him forever and ever. Amen. God has placed a gift in each and every one of us. I love the Bible. I love reading the Bible. It gives life to me. There are certain scriptures that just excite me to no end, and I love the scripture.
He says, I know the plans I have for you. That excites me because then it tells me I don't have to worry. I love the scripture. It says, pray about everything. I love scripture, but there's one scripture that really I just , I have challenges with and it's in Genesis. Me and God have had conversations about this because I just know how he does things. It's in Genesis one, I mean Genesis two verse seven, it says this , then the Lord God formed the man from dust of the ground.
He made the streets gold and heaven and made the Gates out of Pearl, but his greatest possession, his greatest , uh, investment us. He made us from there. I'm like, no. Why didn't you make us from like goal, your greatest treasure, your most value possession your children. You made us from dirt, soil, dirt. I'm like, Oh, it's like that. Oh , I'm bothered by that. But then I began to think about it. I began to ponder it a little bit.
Wait a minute, God, when it comes to growth, natural things, if I wanted to grow something, I couldn't plant a seed in gold. When it comes to growth, I can't put a seed in some men and expect anything to happen when it comes to growing something. I can't put a seed in a Pearl and expect to change. God said, I'm gonna make you from dirt because only dirt cannot put a
seed into you so that it can grow. I'm a place something in you in order for it to come on to you so it can grow. I know there's a negative connotation with dirt, but today y'all let's get dirty.
All right ,
there's a story I heard one time about a little boy. He loved peaches and he was thinking I would his dad, he said, you know, he ate the peach and he got down to the seat and his daddy says, son, you know what, if we take that seed and plant it in the backyard over some time we can have our own peach tree. And the kid was like, woo as great cause I love pizza . So you mean I could have my own tree full of peaches? The dad's like, yeah. So he says, all right, come on, let's go in the back.
So they go in the back and they dig up a little hole, they dig, dig enough, dig, dig deep enough. And he drops the peach seed in there, he plants it and he goes, the kid goes to school the next day, whole day he's in school. All he's thinking about is getting home and seeing this tree grow with peaches because kids, you know, they think things happen overnight. So the kid comes and he presses his nose up against the window and he's looking outside and
there's nothing that dirt looks exactly how it looked when he planted it .
So he's like, all right, all right. It takes time. It takes time. I remember daddy said, you know, over time I'd get it. So he comes back the next day and he presses his nose up against the window and looks on the backyard and there's nothing. This goes on for an entire month and nothing is happening. So finally the boys upset with his daddy . He even goes as far as calling his daddy a liar that you lied.
You said that if we planted this seed and put it in this ground, that we would have a peach tree. And he said sauna told you what happened number one over time. But here's the question I want to ask you. What have you done with the seed you've planted? Have you done anything to help it grow?
Let me show you something. This dirt is just dirt. My brothers and sisters, it's just regular soil. I just dug it out of my wife's garden this morning. Don't try and tell her I did that. Listen, if she finds out, I know who told her . Listen, it's just soil, right? So it is this, I have right here radishes, but put a little radish in there, right? It's just soil. It's just dirt. God made us from dirt. Right?
And if we don't do nothing with what he made us with, cause he planted in each of us the same thing. I poured it in his dirt a seed,
right ?
But if we don't do nothing with it, it will stay as dirt. But what we have to do is just pull a little bit of water in there just a little bit. Take care of it. I heard it . If you talk to your plants, they grow. Hey , dirt. How you doing? And you till the soil a little bit cause God has planted something. Hey dirt . How you doing today? Getting enough sunlight. Y'all know about this, you're getting enough sunlight.
And if we begin to play until the dirt that God has planted in each of us, we dig deep enough, we'll discover the gift that God has inside. So he planted a seed, a gift, and every single one of us.
But if you ain't read the Bible, if you ain't spending time on your knees and prayer, if you not journaling and asking God to bless you, if you're not tilling the soil that you are already, if you're not trying to fertilize what he's planted in you, you'll never discover the gift that's already inside of you. Somebody get that? This was a Baptist church. They'd be about five runners right now. This was Pentecostal. They'd be flipping chairs over. I get some high fives and everything.
I get about three Holy goes dances . If this was Pentecostal, I got dirty for y'all . Listen, God made us from dirt. It is the only resource that he could plant something in where something could actually sprout up from. It is the only resource that we can plant something that will last for generations and generations. That tree, that peach tree, that kid waters it. You know how long that peach tree can live if he takes care of it a lifetime. In other words,
heat can die and his kids can see the fruits of a seed. Always good. The fruits of a seed that was planted when he was a little boy, all he has to do is tend to the seed that was planted. All you have to do is tend to the seed that's planted inside of you. You want to discover your purpose, baby, spend some time with God. Begin fertilize and that . See , that's already inside of you. Your purpose is already there. You don't have to look into magazines and go get help books.
You don't have to look into that . You don't have to even ask your pastor. You don't have to ask your mom and daddy. You don't have to spend 10 years in college to discover your purpose because baby, your purpose was inside of you already because Jeremiah 29 11 says, I know the plans I have for you. He knows. You think you know, but only God knows and he put it inside of you before you were even created in your mother's womb.
Oh, that's good to myself. Hey man, all by myself this morning. Listen to me. What are you doing? What's what's already planted in you? I want to share this quote and we're going to pray out right here, man. This is good to myself, man. This is good. I'm preaching this morning y'all. I needed to hear this muscle. I love this quote by Norman cousins. It says, the tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside of us while we live the trategyG did it g et [ inaudible]?
The tragedy of life is not death. The tragedy is what we do w ell, what's inside of us while we live. If we let that thing, that gift that I just shared with you die on this earth, that thing you know you're supposed to do, b ut watch this. I'm afraid to step out on it. Why? Because I'm worried about money.
Yeah .
I'm just telling the truth. I'm afraid to do that because I'm afraid of what people say. I'm afraid to start this business pastor because what if I fail? Amen. You're doing it right.
[inaudible]
how many times did Michael Jordan try out to be a professional ball player and didn't? He was kicked out of a team. He didn't make a team. I think it was high school. He's one of the great , what was the high school? Thank you. He wanted the greatest basketball players to play the dog on game. How many times was Abe Lincoln told that he Ava league , one of our gorilla , this nature's greatest presidents .
In my personal opinion, Barack would be, you know, right up there, I don't care what you say, you got to charge hush. This ain't the place for that, but listen to what I'm trying to tell you. How many times did they fail before they got it? I don't want to tell you if, if finances and fear are those things that are holding you back from jumping, I don't want you to stop. Listen, I want you to, don't, I don't want you to do this thing.
Yeah .
No , I don't do this thing. Don't do this thing either cause you're not strolling . I double dog dare y'all to do this leap. How many yards was that y'all? We are calculating a job. I'm just, I'm just checking. I'm just, I'm just checking. It was nice if I do say so myself. If I do say so myself. I want you to leave Boone out there, leap, own out there, be transparent and trust everything to God. I double dog dare you and then write me and tell me about how he's blessing you.
Let me know how he's doing for you. I'm sorry. Excuse me, chair.
[inaudible]
leap on out there. Do it. You have all you need next week. I want to really unpack this a little bit more. I want to go deeper with this. I want to tell you what happens on this journey. You don't want to miss it. You do not want to miss next weekend . I'm just giving you the steps to get you going. But I want to tell you I additional warnings. I got to give you about the journey. Once you start going out on this journey to pursuing your purpose, I gotta give you warning.
You need that you're going to need what I'm gonna give you. If you miss it, catch the podcast, but you, if you're a local, be here. You want to catch the same man. And then the following week, my wife and I going to talk about what it means to be married on purpose.