Today I want to spend time talking to you about those things that matter.

What really matters to you?
Most people would say family, happiness, security, etc. Are those important things? Absolutely, but are they the most important things?

The Order

We talk here a lot about the right order for life:
God, spouse, family, friends, everything else.

People often interject their career into that mix. I have it in the everything else portion, and for a reason.

Genesis 2:18
Then the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone

Look, you can have every success in life but if you have no one to live life with, you are going to be miserable. When your life is out of order, misery is what is produced.

So what does an out of order life look like?

Paula Lawes 15 Habits of Highly Miserable People
1. They’re never thankful for anything.
- Biblical counterpart: No gratitude

2. They lead a very unadventurous life.
- Biblical counterpart: No vision

3. They live in and glorify the past.
- Biblical counterpart: No hope

4. They do things for personal gain.
- Biblical counterpart: Unhealthy ambition

5. They are afraid of economic loss.
- Biblical counterpart: God is not their source

6. They love to pick fights.
- Biblical counterpart: Quarrelsome

7. They blame others and play the victim.
- Biblical counterpart: Orphan

8. They think people’s intentions towards them are always dishonorable.
- Biblical counterpart: Untrusting

9. They give themselves a negative identity and revel in it.
- Biblical counterpart: Identity issues

10. They get involved in others’ drama.
- Biblical counterpart: Gossip

11. They always expect the worst.
- Biblical counterpart: Faithless

12. They focus only on themselves.
- Biblical counterpart: Selfish

13. They are critical of everything.
- Biblical counterpart: Never good enough

14. They worry too much.
- Biblical counterpart: Unrenewed mind

15. They are envious of other people’s success.
- Biblical counterpart: Envy/Covetous

This list would be incontrovertible evidence that they are out of order:
God, spouse, family, friends, everything else.

This order is solely based on one thing: what I need most to least to be who God created me to be.

So what really matters to you? Do you ever think of that question in relation to how things affect who you really are?

What if I asked it like this:
What are the things that are the most important when it comes to your spirit? (That’s the real you.)

Why is this an important question? You can spend your life fixing brokenness, or you can spend your life pursuing God’s purpose.

A few months back we talked about sin loops. Sin loops are these cycles you get into where you sin, ask forgiveness, then sin and ask forgiveness, etc. It puts you on a cycle where you’re constantly having to fix a problem.

While God is faithful to forgive, he also has a better plan for our time and energy than the sin loop. He’d rather us use that time moving the Kingdom and walking out purpose than having to constantly tread the path again of forgiveness for the same thing.

So the reason “What are the things that are the most important when it comes to your spirit?” is such an important question is because we all need to be able to focus on what is most important simply because we don’t have unlimited time.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die;

Between that birth and death is a specific number of minutes you have to accomplish God’s purpose.

Those moments are snaps, flashes, mmmbops.

Today’s song is a massive pop hit from 1997. MmmBop by Hansen

You have so many relationships in this life
Only one or two will last
You go through all the pain and strife
Then you turn your back and they're gone so fast
Oh yeah
And they're gone so fast, yeah

Oh, so hold on the ones who really care
In the end they'll be the only ones there
And when you get old and start losing your hair
Can you tell me who will still care?
Can you tell me who will still care?
Oh care

Mmmbop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du, oh yeah

In an mmmbop they're gone

Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose
You can plant any one of those
Keep planting to find out which one grows
It's a secret no one knows
Oh, no one knows

"A lot of people ask what 'MMMBop' means," Zac Hansen said. "Well 'MMMBop' as a word, represents time. It represents the fact that time passes very quickly...And so in a story about reaching for what's important and kind of driving towards the impossible dream, 'MMMBop' is telling you: go now, go now, go now, because in a moment, in an 'MMMBop,' life will be over and have passed you by.”

Three questions today.

1. What has to change to accomplish God’s purpose in your life?
God always has a lane for you to run in, and satan always has an obstacle to stop your progress. Self-awareness plays a huge role in avoiding those obstacles. Pro Hack: Pride is the greatest enemy to self-awareness. Socrates: The unexamined life is not worth living. Your inability to see and address issues in your life is a guarantee of failure in it.

Self-awareness sometimes needs a third party. You know why it isn’t good for you to be alone? Because you are incapable of seeing everything wrong in you.

Your greatest obstacle night not be a noun satan puts in your path, but rather a thought that satan capitalizes on that says “I don’t need to change.”
I am reminded of this every time I see the cover of my book on the orphan spirit. 37 years of living in a mindset that I didn’t know I had.It took a third party who loved me enough to help me see what I couldn’t see.

Maybe you haven’t had someone to help you. I told someone this week, “Don’t beat yourself up for not having the resources you needed to get better.” But now you do have those resources. At Freedom we’re committed to it.

The Holy Spirit will show you what needs to change if you’ll let him!

Mark 10:21
And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Let's try something here:
- Close your eyes.
- Jesus is sitting in a chair across from you.
- It is a comment like with the rich young ruler. You’ve just asked what you need to do to effectively follow him.
- He responds with something that is keeping you from accomplishing your purpose.
- What is it?
- Now say MmmBop. In the time it took to say that word, another second has passed.

Average life span in the US: 77.23 years or 2,438,721,250 seconds
Number of seconds in a day: 86,400.
1440 minutes
24 hours
Time is ticking. Dealing with that issue is worth it simply because time is ticking!

Is God’s purpose worth you dealing with what needs to change?

What has to change to accomplish God’s purpose in your life?

2. How long are you going to wait to do what God told you to do?
Ecclesiastes 11:4-6
He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

If you are waiting on the perfect moment, you might waste your whole life waiting. You will never be perfect enough. You will never have enough money. You will never be at peace enough. There will never be a perfect time.

Wedding at Cana John 2:4
And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

The Chosen
Jesus: “My time has not yet come!”
Mary: “If not now, when?”

Yes, there are seasons. You typically plant in the spring and harvest in the fall. But planting is not the only work that has to be done to reap a harvest. I am three weeks in on some seedlings at my house. I won’t actually plant them for several more weeks. But I had a lot of prep work to do and I have a lot of maintenance to do.

Reasons you aren’t doing what God told you to do:
- You haven’t done the prep work.
- You’re afraid to fail.
- You think you aren’t good enough.
- You don’t know where to start.

Reasons to do what God told you to do:
- If he told you to do it, he’ll tell you when.
- If he told you to do it, he believes you can do it.
- If he told you to do it, he has a plan for you, it, and the problems already.
- If he told you to do it, he knows where to start.

Be careful that you trust God for everything from seed to harvest, not just for the word about the final product.

Mark 10:23-27
And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is[a] to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

What if the only thing keeping you from accomplishing your purpose is you to stop trusting in the possible and start believing God for the impossible?

We’re talking about you using every moment to seek purpose realized.

If God told you to do it, he will not only provide in the arena pf the possible, but he will work with miraculous power in your life to accomplish the impossible.

What has to change to accomplish God’s purpose in your life?
How long are you going to wait to do what God told you to do?

3. Do you really believe God has a plan?
This speaks less about your faith in the plan and more about your faith in the planner. Does God really care about you that much?

Luke 12:7
Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Isaiah 43:2
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

Psalm 34.17-18
When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psalm 139:17-18
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

Workmanship
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Poeima - something made, the creative product out of the heart of the artist. Only one other NT use:

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made (POEIMA), so that they are without excuse.

God wrote two poems, one was the universe and the other was us. This is why Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:16 let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Jesus wants his dad’s workmanship to shine through you!

Why all the effort on workmanship?
No one takes this much time and effort on something worthless. Neither does God. God put thought, care, concern, and time into you. He crafted you, intricately worked you into existence. He knit you together and established your personality. His fingerprints are all over you.

If he went to all that trouble to craft you, don’t you think he has a plan for you? And if he has a plan for you, it means he has an idea about you. And I am convinced that he doesn’t need any input on how he feels about my value. He just wants me to believe what He thinks about me. God’s plan for you wasn’t establish based on how you feel about yourself, or whether or not you deserve a good plan. But it can be hindered by how you feel about yourself and whether or not you deserve a good plan.

God has a plan in spite of what you believe.
How about you believe what he thinks about you?

MmmBop.

It’s a second.

Make a decision today:

Are you going to waste the time you’ve been given, or are you going to trust God and his plan?

Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose
You can plant any one of those
Keep planting to find out which one grows
It's a secret no one knows
Oh, no one knows

God knows.
Trust him.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?