If you’re going to live with purpose then it is going to take you making some decisions:
- What will govern your life?
- What will you do when presented with opportunities to compromise?
- What are your core values?
- What are your non-negotiables?

Whether you are Christian or not, every single person has these questions answered at some level. Even in the context of the secular world, there are these, these morays, that we know, and we know not to cross them.

We know lying is bad. We know cheating is bad. We know murder is bad.

Why is this?
A secularists will tell you it is because we have a basic survival instinct, and all of these things listed are a detriment to perpetuating the species. But have you looked into the animal Kingdom at all? Dolphins are horrible bullies. Cats will toy with mice, dragging out their death. Chimps murder and war against each other constantly. A new dominant male lion will kill all of the cubs when he takes over a pride.

But the real reason is because we were all created in the image of God and from the very beginning, he created a set of rules that govern humanity. For instance, the 10 Commandments.

We can have a discussion on whether or not Christianity or secularism or any other religion is better or worse, wrong or right. Here at freedom Church, we are Bible, believing, Spirit led followers of Jesus Christ.

We are not just convinced because of some set of data or evidence. We are convinced because we've had an experience with the king of kings.
We've experienced, tangibly, the salvation of our Lord.

We believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, we believe he died on the cross for our sins, we believe he was raised on the third day, and we believe that if we simply confess him as Lord that we are saved.

This is our confession, our belief. Jesus is King and we are completely his.

Now, as a result of this confession, it means that we have voluntarily chosen to adopt some things, thoughts, laws, beliefs, etc, that govern our lives.

And please remember how important this is when it comes to the notion of living with purpose. When there is nothing to live for, there is no reason to live. In my mind, and atheist has to be the most miserable person on earth! And I’ve heard the responses: I just get to do what I want and no one or nothing can tell me what to do. Maybe, but when you have nothing to live for, what is the point of living?

If you are here and feel like this describes you, like you have nothing to live for, that living with purpose is impossible because you don't see your life having a purpose, all that means is that you haven't really truly met Jesus yet, and if you will surrender your life to him, everything will change. You've tried everything else. Try going all in with Jesus.

Fellow Christians, we've submitted our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and that means we've made some decisions about what we think, believe, and do. None of us are perfect at this, but I'd like to share with you today three of those decisions in the hope that you or someone else here will either begin or more effectively live with purpose.

1. We choose conviction over convenience.
If there is anything that works against us as Christians harder than Satan, it might be convenience. We are consumed with convenience.

I know this firsthand. I have some devices in my house that will do things with a voice command. All I have to say is “Alexa, turn off the master bedroom,” and the light goes off. If I am hot, all I have to say is “Alexa, set ecobee to 70.” Fellas, I have a cool hack where when Monique leaves the house, all she has to say is, “Alexa, turn off everything,” and every light in our house goes off. As I am thinking about it, I can even set a geofence that when she leaves it automatically does it!

Some of you in here who believe the government is tracking you and it would be a cold day and you know where before you head that device in your house, I get it, but after church, let me tell you about what your phone does.

We love the convenience of this. I love when I get in bed to go to sleep and I forget to turn the fan on, all I have to do is tell her device and it does it.
Convenience is incredible.

Until it has to do with what you think, believe, or do.

The problem with convenience when it comes to your Christianity is that it often leads to compromise. When you compromise, it forces you to lower your standard, to give up a little bit of ground that before you were willing never to concede.

We live in a world that is growing more and more focused on convenience, and it is so easy for that convenience to weaken our conviction. And if you think this is something new, you're wrong!

Mark 8:34–35.
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's will save it.

Jesus was telling his followers that a life lived, for Jesus is going to be one of sacrifice, of denying yourself, of losing your life, not saving it. I know you might think, "well who wants to sign up for that?"

And this is exactly the problem. This verse, this thought is exactly what I'm talking about.

We would much rather save our lives than live for something eternal. That's what our flesh demands, what our flesh is constantly craving.

But Jesus is offering something better, something higher, something holy. He's offering you an opportunity to forgo convenience so that you can live with conviction, so you can live with purpose.

If you are going to follow Jesus, you are going to have a never-ending supply of opportunities to choose convenience over conviction. You're gonna want to sleep instead of pray. You're gonna want to watch Netflix instead of read your Bible. You're going to want to just sit in service rather than serve. You’re going to want to just keep your head down and mind your business rather than tell somebody about Jesus.

Why? Because your flesh craves convenience.

At some point, you were going to have to make a decision to embrace conviction over convenience. We see this in the life of Peter.

Luke 22:54-62
54 Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. 55 And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. 56 Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” 57 But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” 58 And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” 59 And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” 60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.

What you see here is a man who chose convenience over conviction. He was put in a precarious situation where his mortal life may actually be in danger, yet rather than stand on his conviction, he embraced convenience, and the result was compromise, even to the core of his faith in Jesus.

Can you see yourself in the story? Had there been moments where you chosen convenience over conviction? Yet when we go to Acts 2, the story is very different.

Acts 2:14, 22-24
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

What in the world happened?!?!? How did Peter go from Captain Convenient to Courageous Conviction?

Two things:
- He was filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:4. I don't think for a second that you can reject convenience and embrace conviction without the power of the Holy Spirit active in your life. It's worth it now even to just take a moment and ask the Holy Spirit to fill us freshened new right now.
- But the other thing happened in John chapter 21.

John 21:7-8
7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. 8 The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

It would have been more convenient for Peter to just stay in the boat until I got to shore. But something inside of him jumped up and said, "I will never let convenience govern my life ever again.”

I'm not asking you to throw away your Alexa devices or get rid of your phones and go back to carrier pigeons. I've said it 1 million times here, God doesn't have a problem with you having things, he just doesn't want those things to have you.

But I am challenging you that when it comes time to stand on your conviction, let the conviction govern you, not convenient.
- Lay down your life, lose it even.
- Think of others has more important than yourself.
- When you don't feel like praying, pray.
- It might mean you have to get here a little early, but serve.
- And you have no idea how desperate that person standing next to you in the aisle at Walmart is to hear the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Convenient feed your temporal flesh. Conviction feeds your eternal spirit.
Be governed by what's eternal.

2. Our convictions are Bible-based, not feelings-driven.
There is nothing on earth that will feed you, encourage you, develop you, purify you, and help you live with purpose more than the Word of God.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The Word is our standard. Even if you feel like you get "a word from God," that word you hear from him is always subject to his written word, and if the spoken word is in contradiction, it's not a word!

Our convictions as Christians are not born out of how we feel, but out of the Word. And this is important because the word doesn't always feel good. I don't know about you, but correction doesn't taste very good in my mouth.
- The Word will demand I a crucify my flesh.
- The Word will demand I change what I think, what I believe, and how I act.
- The Word will tell me I have to forgive people that have hurt me.
- The Word will tell me to consider others as more important than myself.
- The Word won't just let me do whatever I want to do.
- And the Word is not concerned with how I feel about it either!

One of the biggest problems in the world we face right now is the fact that people are completely and totally driven by how they feel. And none of us are immune to this either. Let somebody in front of you on the interstate. You see?

When you are driven by your feelings, you go where your feelings take you. If left ungoverned, where will anger take you? Where will jealousy take you? Where will rejection take you?

And don't think you can trust your heart in this either. I'm convinced my heart is more on the side of my feelings driven flesh than it is on the side of the Holy Spirit.

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Too many of us have been listening to our heart as it's calling to us. Your heart has to lineup with what the Word of God says just like the rest of you has to.

This demands, we evaluate our convictions to test whether they are rooted in the word or in our feelings. Is your conviction for Jesus rooted in the word or is it rooted in how you feel? If it's rooted in the word, then it doesn't matter what's going on around you, good bad or ugly. You can be on cloud 9 or on cloud -9 and you stay committed to trusting him.

If it is rooted in how you feel, then you will see the result of that in your thoughts, actions, and beliefs. When you are winning, you feel near him, but when you are losing or if he's not meeting your expectations, then your relationship suffers.

When our convictions are rooted in the word of God, it eliminates the gray areas, the swaying back-and-forth. Take John the Baptist as an example.

The people of Israel at that time were so blown away by John the Baptist because he did not fit the narrative of a traditional religious leader. He was bold, laser, focused, confident in what he was supposed to be doing. As Jesus is speaking with the crowd, he addresses the fact that they fully expected him to be a religious leader that would ebb and flow with the environment he was in. For the religious leaders of that time, it was more about politics than it was ministry. It was more about people pleasing than being biblical. We know this because if they really were biblical like they should've been, they would've recognized Jesus from a mile away.

Matthew 11:7-10
7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds. “What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see? Was he a weak reed, swayed by every breath of wind? 8 Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, people with expensive clothes live in palaces. 9 Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet. 10 John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before you.’”

Even today we are blown away when we encounter people who are filled with conviction. But Jesus knew exactly who he was talking to, and unfortunately, we see the same exact thing in the body of Christ today!

Matthew 11:16-19
16 “To what can I compare this generation? It is like children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends, 17 ‘We played wedding songs, and you didn’t dance, so we played funeral songs, and you didn’t mourn.’ 18 For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”

These are people that cannot be satisfied. The music is too loud, the music is too soft. The church is too big, the church is too small. I like that the preacher wears blue jeans, I hate he doesn't wear a suit. I want more hymns, I want more contemporary.

This is the sound of feelings based convictions.

Is there more to your relationship with God than how you feel at any given moment?

Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Isaiah 40:8
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Proverbs 30:5
Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

Why would we ever want anything but God’s Word to govern our lives?

We’re talking about decisions about what we think, believe, and do based on our confession of Jesus and how what governs our lives can help us live with purpose.

1.We choose conviction over convenience.
2. We choose Bible-based over feelings-driven.

3. We choose contentment over complacency.

Contentment - satisfaction
Complacency - self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies

Are you content or complacent? Are you satisfied or are you self-satisfied not realizing you’re in danger and deficient?

The difference between these two is in what is governing your life and whether or not you are reaching potential and purpose.

It is interesting that the word complacent comes from a word that means pleasing, but that contentment comes from a word that means satisfied. Satisfy is to meet the full desires, expectations, and needs. Pleasing is to cause to feel happy.

When it comes to your relationship with God, are you content or complacent? Are you satisfied where your desires, expectations, and needs are fully met, or are you pleased where you simply feel happy.

Do you see the difference? One speaks to fulfillment and the other speaks to feelings.

A question I often ask people when they’re in the middle of something is this: Is this God’s best for you? Often this has to do with sin issues in their lives, job decisions, etc. But “Is this God’s best for you” forces you to evaluate whether or not you are living with purpose.

When you are complacent, you don’t want more.
It isn’t that you can’t take any more, you just don’t want it. There is no oomph. to grow or develop or to look forward to what might be on the horizon. Take this building for instance. We’re in it! and while there are still things to do and sort, we are already looking into how to make it better. We already have a plan for Phase 2 and even a nextgen facility in the back 8.

Do you want more in your relationship with God? Or are you just happy if he’s happy with you? Do you want to go deeper? Is there a hunger to know him more? If there isn’t, are you complacent?

But when you are content, it doesn’t mean you don’t want more, but it does mean that you are resting in the knowledge that you are living with purpose, you are leaning in, and you genuinely believe you are walking in God’s best for you. It means that you have an eye to what’s next but that you are experiencing the pleasure of the Lord in your life as it is now.

Contentment carries with it this powerful union between being satisfied and looking forward. We see this with Paul

Philippians 4:11-13
11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 3:12-14
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

My point is this:
When we choose contentment over complacency, we are allowing our lives to be governed by this idea that while we are completely satisfied with where God has us, we know that there is more. And because there is more, we will choose to continue living with purpose as we look forward to what God has for us.

Conviction over convenience. Bible-based over feelings-driven. Contentment over complacency.

How do we do this?
You have to want what God wants more than you want what you want.
You have to be led by the Spirit, not your flesh.
You have to let what governs you be full of conviction, rooted in the Word, as you are satisfied in your relationship with him.

If you are struggling today with living with purpose, with conviction, with embracing the Word, I want you to know it isn’t a massive shift that makes the difference, but a single step.

What decision do you need to make today to start more effectively living with purpose?

Let’s pray.

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

How does he want you to respond?