Find Your Purpose

God made you for more. Discover how He's uniquely gifted you to serve others, share His love, and make a lasting difference as you join Him in what He's already doing in the world around you.

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Well, good morning. It's good to see all of you today. Those of you joining in person, those streaming in online, or maybe you're watching later on demand. My name's Tim. I get the privilege of being one of the pastors here and staff member. Staff members, and uh there are some people here that I don't recognize, so I'm glad that you're here as well. And if I haven't had a chance to meet you, I'll be out in the middle of the West lobby along with Eric and some of the other staff. If you don't mind just coming up and introducing yourself, it just gives me an opportunity to connect with you and thank you for being with us today. Uh, if you're joining in online, there's people in the chat uh that can answer any questions you have and connect with you as well. Uh as today, here we are uh at the end of August, and we're gonna be completing our sermon series that we've been on the last four weeks, uh, unveiling and unpacking what we believe God has laid on our heart is our new strategy, our new discipleship path on how we uh how we together can grow in our faith. And so uh four weeks ago we looked at what this whole idea of being a disciple even means. Why does a church need a discipleship path? Uh what does that entail? And so we've been walking through this strategically over the last few weeks. Uh, this is our heart's desire. We want people to come to Shepherd's Gate. Amen. We want more people to come to Shepherd's Gate, amen. And the people that come to Shepherd's Gate, we want you to be connected to others that call this their church. So we want you to find your people, and that's what we looked at three weeks ago. Uh last week, uh, Pastor Eric took us through this whole idea of finding your place. How do you find your place? How do you find an opportunity to take it outside of just the Sunday morning experience to be able to plug into Bible studies and get connected to other people? And so what was interesting is I was uh I was gone last weekend. I was up in Port Austin for a wedding of one of the kids uh that I had the privilege of having in my youth group here at Shepherd's Gate. It was actually kind of cool he got married on Saturday, and then on Sunday I was with a completely different family that actually lives up in Port Austin, another one of my students who's married now and had their first daughter, and so I got to do her baptism on Sunday. So it was just a fun weekend, although I dearly miss you guys whenever I'm not here. But last weekend, uh Pastor Eric unveiled uh what he's been working on the last 12 months, which is expanding our opportunities for Bible studies here at Shepherd's Gate. That's why we hired him, that's why we love him. Uh, he's gonna be doing a lot more of that in the future. And what was so cool is as I was watching the service online, that after he got through announcing all of the Bible classes that we're gonna be launching, including bringing back Bible studies on Sunday mornings, which you're excited about, right? Which means, you know, you're the 11 o'clock crew, it means you gotta come even earlier, go to Bible study, and then go to the service. Uh, that's exactly how you responded. You clapped. And I said to my wife uh who was watching with me, I said, Lisa, did you hear that? They clapped after you told them about all of the cool Bible studies we're gonna have. That means they're all gonna sign up for Bible studies. Because what else would you clap? Would you just clap and go, Glad we have Bible studies for those other suckers? No! You're clapping because you can't wait for September, which I told you in my world is the new year. I believe it is the new year for most people. It's it's not January 1st, it's September 1st, and there's so much opportunity now that has been presented to you. And so today's gonna be easy. Honestly, this is what I'm most passionate about. Uh, it's what I feel is my life calling, is to help people figure out their purpose. And when I say find your purpose, it's find your purpose and who God has created you to be and destined you to be. Because there's a constant war for your attention and for your soul and for your time. And when you figure this whole discipleship thing out, when you really figure out why God has you on this planet, it unleashes and it unveils and it reveals to you and to me a whole different way of living in a world that's constantly drawing us towards selfishness, constantly drawing us toward negativity, constantly being this negative influence in our lives, and we know that that's not what God has for us. Amen? So here's where it is, and we've done this with every one of these sermon series. We've gone back to the basics, gone back to foundational scriptures that we believe God is still speaking to us today. And so I'm gonna start with this scripture. This is the scripture of Jesus talking to his disciples. He's already risen from the dead. Uh, he's revealed himself to them, he's given them some final instructions, and these are the last things on his lips. These are his final instructions before he ascends into heaven. He says this to the disciples you are gonna receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. I'm going up to heaven, I'm gonna sit at the right hand of God the Father, and the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you, and you are gonna receive this ability now to go out and to be my witnesses. This is his plan for saving the world. This is his plan for uh for letting people know the hope they can have in Jesus. And by the way, this is gonna start in your local community where you're at right now in Jerusalem. And then it's gonna extend to the surrounding communities of Judea and Samaria. And oh, by the way, some of you are gonna be tapped on the shoulder and you're gonna be sent to other countries and other regions of the world so that you could proclaim that Christ has in fact risen from the dead. What an awesome mandate that we have from our God. What an awesome responsibility that He actually trusts us. What was he thinking? Wait, I thought that's why he created Facebook. Don't I just get to post a Bible passage and a prayer? That's my evangelism? Oh, maybe that's why he created TikTok. Oh, that's right. God didn't create TikTok. The Chinese did. No, God actually wants us to go out and to give up our most valuable resource, which is our time, and be eyeball to eyeball, shoulder to shoulder, and to boldly proclaim the hope that we have and the hope that they can have in Jesus. Now stay with me on this, okay? Our mission here at Shepherd's Gate. How many of you know our mission statement? If you don't and you call Shepherd's Gate your home, you have two more days until September 1st. You have got to have this thing memorized. Tattoo it on your arm for all I care, okay? What is the mission of Shepherd's Gate? Who knows it? Say it out loud. And look how many of you know that? That our church exists to impact the world with the love of Jesus. This has to be part of our discipleship plan. We have to know why Shepherd's Gate exists if we ever want to go and be a light to our community. So let's just do an assessment on 2026. How does that sound? As we close out August and we move into what I would say is the new year, how have you been impacted by the world around you in the last eight months? Anybody willing to admit that maybe they're allowing too much fear or anxiety or depression? You spend too much time watching the news, you spend too much time scrolling on social media, which I just learned a new term this last week that they talk about for teenagers, and I'm like, I just don't think it's teenagers, I actually think it's adults as well. And what they say is teenagers that don't get out of their bed and they scroll endlessly on social media. Does anybody know what the term is?

unknown 8:33

Brain rot.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Brain rot or bed rot? And I was thinking, we actually need to move that further along and talk about people that have couch rot. Or lazy boy rot. That's a crazy term. Brain rot. You're frying your brain, bed rot. You're not even getting out of bed, you're not even experiencing the world that God has created us to live and to function in in the joys of creation. What about politics? You letting that impact you the last eight months? Wars and rumors of wars. Spending more time having conversations about those things than the things of God and the movement of God and the advancement of the kingdom of God. I feel like that's part of our role at the church is to realign your focus, to remind you of what your destiny and your purpose is here on earth, because Jesus already told us it's not gonna get better, it's gonna get worse. And there is gonna be wars and rumors of wars, and there's gonna be earthquakes, and there's gonna be people that hate you, and there's gonna be people that don't want to hear about your Jesus. But don't give up. You take heart because Jesus has overcome the world. Now, how about this? How has Shepherd's Gate impacted your life in the last eight months? Has it been positive? I hope so. Otherwise, I don't know why you're here. Did anybody come to church today and say, I hope I get beat up? Anybody come and like, man, I just want a really good like message where I feel like crap when the service is over. If that's you, you can talk to Pastor Eric after the service, okay? No, you don't come to church. You come to church to be uplifted. We come to church to receive God's good gifts and blessings, which he's already given us in holy communion. And as we open his word, as he draws us closer to him and reminds us how precious and valuable we are, in fact, to him. How much we're loved by him, how he never, ever, ever stops pursuing and working his perfect will in our lives. So now that we're starting this new year, can I ask you this? What do you want to see happen in the four remaining months of 2026? And I'm asking this because I don't think a lot of people think about this. I think our schedules get so crazy. And all of the things that are about to happen, and many of us we like the fall, especially if you have kids, because there's this routine and you know, there's schedules and there's schools, and you know, at my house, I'm the one that kind of manages putting most of the stuff on our Google calendars. Anybody else you use a you use an online calendar? And because I'm so ADD and OCD and everything in between, I love to have everything on the calendar before the fall starts. All the kids' days off of school, half days, anything that they have related to their jobs, their work, their schooling activities, all of those things, and then we can kind of plan out and look at what this is going to entail. But one of the things that I find fascinating is many of you operate the same way. This is the only way that you kind of communicate with your spouse. Like many of us, we go to bed at night and saying, okay, let's pull up the calendar. What do we have the next day? And what do we have this weekend? You know, who's picking up this person and how are we doing this or that? And I would say this: what does the calendar look like when it comes to spiritual matters? If you're 11 o'clock and you know that you're gonna worship every Sunday at 11 a.m., why not put that on your Google Family calendar? Why not make sure that's the priority? And as you look at all of these Bible classes and all of these opportunities to get plugged in around here, have you had that discussion? Have you figured out where you're going to further investigate and further grow in your faith and get it on that calendar and commit to being part of it? Or maybe you're gonna join, you're gonna sign up and join one of the small groups that Eric's is creating, whether it's in somebody's house or it's here at the church. And so you're gonna have to create margin and space for those things to actually take place. Maybe a better way to ask it is this if you could determine where your relationship is with God on December 31st, what would you want it to look like that would make it different than it is today? What are the steps? What are the things that maybe you would need to do? Are there some scheduling things that you need to change in the morning and getting up early and reading your Bible and having that cup of coffee? Or maybe it's setting an alarm on your phone because you're like a midday person, and so part of your lunch break is just to open the word and to read God's words for you for that day. Or maybe it's being intentional about reclaiming that family table and mealtime and making sure you're intentional about having spiritual conversations in your home. Again, none of this is a got to, this is a get-to. We get to do these things as we walk with the Lord in our relationship with him. See, our vision here at Shepherd's Gate is that we're going to value everyone we meet, influence everywhere we go, and live generously with everything that we have. And if you're new to Shepherd's Gate, you're probably wondering why are these words in brackets? And the reason they're in brackets is because when we say everyone, we mean everyone who calls Shepherd's Gate home, we expect them to be nice to other people. Isn't that crazy? And yet sometimes some of the people that are the meanest to us are the ones that say that they're in the same church family. That doesn't make any sense. God help us. But not only from an individual standpoint, how about collectively as a church that everyone that walks through our doors, they're like, man, there's this church on 23 mile. They actually want more people to become part of their community. You can just sense it, you can feel it, you can hear it when you walk through the doors of their church. And oh, by the way, they're involved in their community. They don't just come to church, sit, listen, and leave. They actually want people to go out and serve. And they'll even find people that are willing and send them on mission teams and mission projects all over the world because they actually believe what Jesus said in Acts 1.8. When he said it to the disciples, he's also continuing to say it to us today. And oh, by the way, when they say live generously, they actually mean they want people to give up their most precious resource, which is their time before they ever open their checkbook to go and to be the hands and feet of Jesus. You guys know this. This is why we have so many local partners, and we have our immersion weekend that we had back in June, where our church was deployed all over Metro Detroit, and projects continuing to happen week in and week out. And so there's micro-level projects that happen, and then there's church-wide initiatives that we do. But there's a pace to these things. We don't want to overwhelm our church. We don't want to get so far out there that we're constantly doing mission work, but yet we're not filling our own lives up with God's word. And I told you this week one, this is why Eric is a great compliment to me here, because he's so so focused on the discipleship with the kids, students, and adults and all the people that work in that area, because I'm always going to push you to get outside the walls of the church. I'm always going to push you and try to push you outside of your comfort zone. But I recognize that you need both and a church. There's a healthy balance in having both. Isn't it cool that we do have people that have answered the call and they're willing to go to the far reaches of the world? Places that we've had partnerships with in the past, new places that we are exploring, some of these places where individuals serve on long-term basis. Some of these places that we believe God may be opening the door for future partnerships. And if you didn't hear, if you didn't know, I spent part of the summer in Ethiopia. And I didn't go on a mission trip. I didn't go build anything or paint anything. I didn't kick a soccer ball or run a VBS. I went on a vision trip where I got to see an organization firsthand that's doing incredible ministry. 33 different cities and towns that they're partnered with, and I got to go to eight of the 33 and see firsthand the way that they are bringing the gospel to people, which this is so hard to believe in 2026 that there are still people living in extreme poverty. Isn't that sad? It's insane. Rolling up to a village where you still have kids that are covered in dirt from that, from their head to their toe, and they're malnourished, and there's no education and there's no infrastructure or system. And you go, how in the world does this still happen? How is this still going on? And is there anything that maybe we could do to come alongside churches in these communities that are doing exactly what we're doing, trying to figure out how to go and partner with the people in their community? And the way they do that is by providing resources to them, first physical resources with nutrients and simple things like clothes and helping them fix up their homes, and then they begin to educate. And slowly but surely it opens the door for them to be able to share the gospel. God, what is it that you would do through us where we could have a worldwide kingdom impact? And we're gonna be talking more about that in the future. I want to walk through with you today Acts chapter 13. Because we know that Jesus gave this mandate to the disciples. And I want you to see how it actually lived out past even that group of disciples. Acts chapter 13 is one of my favorite chapters. It talks about a church in Antioch. So there's an established church now, and look, they have prophets and teachers, they have church workers, they have people that are dedicated to helping develop people to become more fully devoted followers of Jesus. And what's so cool is look at all the names that are listed here. A guy named Barnabas and Simeon called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Manion and Saul. And what does it say they're doing? They are worshiping. Just like what we do when we come together. And I'm so thankful for our dear brother Jeff, who's now been here two months, two months with us. So crazy is a group of us had the opportunity to help him finally move into their house. He and his wife and four kids have been living with another family from Shepherd's Gate. They paid a huge sacrifice to move here from Omaha. And yesterday, this is his wife over here, Joe. Aren't you glad all of your possessions are now in your house? Now you have to unbox everything. I believe that God is just getting started in what he's gonna do in and through Jeff, just so you know. You are gonna see and you are gonna experience the spiritual temperature in this place increase as he gets fully into his position. Amen. And you're gonna want other people to be part of the worship expressions and services that we have here at Shepherd's Gate. Amen? It's gonna be awesome. I can't wait. Look what they're doing. They're worshiping, they're fasting. The Holy Spirit's the one that says, hey, tap those people on the shoulder, Barnabas and Saul, and guess what? You're gonna place your hands on them and you are gonna send them out. So they go out with the Holy Spirit. And it says they sailed to Cyprus. Wouldn't that be cool to get on a boat and go do mission work for Jesus? Do you know Canadians need Jesus? We have a lot of boat owners in this church. I was thinking we should get a boat posse together and just send them to Canada. I don't know if you know, Canadians are not very happy with us right now. I don't know why. Like we did anything. They really, I feel like God might be opening the door because they're so mad that we can just go and hug them. Say, whatever. Jesus loves you. Come on, folks. Now we get on planes. We actually have a member of our church that serves on a ship for months and months, sometimes a year at a time. Her name's Angela Rosek, and she serves on a mercy ship off the coast of Africa. It says they proclaimed the word of God. They opened their mouths. They had conversations. They were eyeball to eyeball with people. Paul and his companions also got in a boat, went to some places. John actually returned back to Jerusalem. All this movement that's going on. And God's opening the doors, even to go into their religious institutions. And what do they do? They hear the reading from the law and prophets. What are the law and prophets? Who knows? It's the Old Testament. And I know some of you are super excited. You cannot wait for us to get back into the book of Exodus. I mean, even my own kids were like, Dad, what are you preaching on today? Dude, are you ever going to get back to the book of Exodus? Yes, September. We are turning that corner and we're going to get back into it. We're going to read the law and the prophets. We're going to dig deep into God's scripture and we are going to watch it come alive in our lives because it's breathing and living and active and has the power to change and transform us from the inside out. They're hearing the Old Testament read, and they're saying, if you have any words of encouragement, go ahead, say it to the people. They had favor with the people, they had relationship with the people so much that they gave them the floor in their own religious building. How cool is that? God moving mightily. In fact, the next week, the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. The name of Jesus being spread. More and more people intrigued and wanting to know who this Jesus is and did He really rise from the dead. Can you imagine with me, folks, if all of Shelby Township showed up next week to Shepherd's Gate? And they took your parking spot. And they sat in your seat and they drank your coffee. How would you respond? Praise God. You know there's like 80,000 people in Shelby Township alone? Imagine what God can do. Do you realize the only way that anyone's ever going to step foot into this church is because you invite them. It's still the number one evangelism tool. You can read any consultant, any statistic in any denomination, any church body. The number one way to see people grow and come to faith in Jesus is by a personal invitation. You and me. Being willing to be Christ's ambassadors to a lost world. This is what's so cool is that this momentum started spreading throughout the whole region. And if you've never been part of something like this, then you don't realize what's coming next because the scripture tells us this, and we see it over and over and over again. It said these people that were willing to step out in faith, they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. It doesn't say they were fatigued. It doesn't say they were tired. It doesn't say they checked the box and now they're good for the rest of the year. They figured out the secret to living with purpose. That it's much greater than we even realize. And there's a joy that comes from the Lord that the world does not understand. There is a joy that comes when we step out in faith, we give up our time, we have these conversations, we willingly serve the marginalized people in our community, or we serve the people that maybe aren't even nice to us. And yet God, the Holy Spirit, has this ability to put something in our hearts that's so hard to contain. That's why when people go on mission trips, they come back and they're all fired up. Why are they fired up? Because they had nothing else to distract them for an entire week. I've seen it over and over again. It is no different. You can be in Ethiopia, you can be here, there, anywhere else. It's literally living for the fact that every day you are living to serve somebody else and love somebody else and to share Jesus with somebody else. But how do we how do we integrate this into the reality that we find ourselves in? We have schools, we have jobs, we have responsibilities. How do we create this healthy rhythm of each and every day being the mouthpiece of sharing the gospel? Here's what I'd say. You want to find your purpose? Number one thing you have to do is get your attention off yourself. No amens on that one. Okay. Number one way to find your purpose on this planet through Christ is to get your attention off of yourself. Isn't that so hard to do? It's so hard to do. And yet that's exactly what Christ called us to do, and that's what he modeled for us to do with the way that he lived his life. I do think there are certain seasons that you actually are allowed to be selfish. If you are in a crisis and you are hurting, you need to get help and you need to get healing. Whether you've gone through a painful situation, you are you are you are caught up in an addiction, something is collapsing around you. Here's the thing: you can't go through life alone. You've got to let fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord surround you and encourage you and help you during those times. I am so thankful that we have one of the best care programs here at Shepherd's Gate. Classes that again are gonna be busting at the seams. People going through crisis, whether it's a divorce or they've lost a loved one, or they just need somebody else to just sit and to empathize with them and to weep with them and to and to pray with them. All of the people that serve so faithfully in care, week in and week out. And you know statistically that still 80% of the people that are in our care program don't even go to our church. They're from the community. And I'm so thankful to be part of a church as the classes continue to expand and multiply, as they're specializing in even more things, as they hear and they research the felt needs of what people are struggling with in our own community. And if that's you, you have every right to get the help that you need. Get that counselor, talk to one of us, let us come alongside you. Don't do this alone. You know, another time I tell people I think they're allowed to be selfish. And if you're in here today, college students, the demand on you and your studies and figuring this life out in such a small window of time is insane. It's crazy the pressure that's on you now. And I believe for that season of your life, you are allowed to focus on your studies because you are preparing yourself for what it is that God is going to do with you in the future. I'll give you another one. Anybody get engaged this weekend? No? No rings. I think premarriage couples should be focused on themselves. There's so much pressure on them now from parents and in-laws and outlaws and aunts and uncles. Good Lord. And I say, you know what's okay. The scriptures say the two become one flesh. The circle's drawn around the two of you. Everybody else now is outside of that circle. And it is important that you develop that relationship, that you don't get so hyper-focused on your wedding day that you forget the most important part of this is your future together as husband and wife. In fact, your focus should be on your future and your marriage even more than your wedding. Amen? Because God has something greater for the two of them in bringing them together that He's gonna do more for His glory and honor through and in them than they could ever do if they remained single. Once you get your attention off yourself, obviously the next focus is to find somebody else. You just gotta find somebody else that's hurting. Does anybody know anybody that's hurting? Go ahead, raise your hand. Anyone in here, you don't know anybody that's hurting? That means you're probably bedrotting, okay? That means you actually have to get out of the house. Good Lord, there's so much hurt and pain in people's lives. Come on. People use excuses like, well, we're in the post-Christian, the post-modern, the post-this, the post-that. Guess what? Jesus hasn't come back, so there's still work to do. And thanks be to God, it's his Holy Spirit that'll work in and through you. Go back to the beginning verse. He is going to give you the power. You don't have to muster it up on your own. You just got to make yourself available as we respond to the incredible mercy and grace that He has given for us and through us and in us. In fact, this is what it tells you: find the people that are in distress. Find the people that don't need to hand out, they need to hand up. Speak. Speak truth into them. Speak hope into them. Speak Jesus into them. When we say find your purpose here at Shepherd's Gate, and you're going to hear this over the next five years, we believe everyone can be involved in local missions. We're not a sit, listen, and leave church. Everyone can be part of this. In fact, in the future, we're going to be talking more about this: that everyone can be involved in global missions. And it doesn't mean you have to leave to be involved in global missions. And I'm excited to unveil and unpack these things in future sermons. So here it is, folks. It all comes back to this the SG path. We want you to find your people because you are part of God's church. And you're part of God's church because He's produced faith in your heart and you're part of His family. We want you to find your place. We want to teach you how to read the Bible. We want to show you and model for you and then release you to know how to pray. And pray in your marriage and pray in your household and pray for others. We're going to do that. We're going to help you do that. We're going to have incredible teachers that are going to be teaching these classes and all the things that are going to be happening this fall. And finally, as we're fed the word of God, as God builds us up and that fire continues to be ignited in our souls. Oh man, I can't wait. Trust me, I'll be the one with the slingshot, sending you out to go and live that life of purpose that God has called every follower of His into. Amen. So today we're going to end with this prayer. And this is a prayer that Jesus actually prayed for his disciples before going to the cross. And I want you to think of this prayer as we've gone over everything that we've gone over today, and I want you to personalize it to you. I want you to hear it from Jesus' lips into your life. And so I don't want you to bow your heads or close your eyes because I want you to see the words as I read these words. But I want you, if you would, would you just open your hands like this today? And as you're doing this, you're putting yourself in a physical posture of receiving the words of Jesus. So hear these words together. Jesus praying to God, I have given them your word. And the world has hated them. For they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. Let me just say that again. They are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. And as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. Amen. Amen and amen. At this time, we're going to continue our worship of our God by.