Purpose

Weston Steeves · Tidal Church Moncton · June 8, 2025 · The Promises of God series

Weston Steeves, a high school student, preaches from Ephesians 2:10 on God's promise of purpose. True purpose is found in becoming more like Jesus, and it costs time in His presence through prayer, Scripture, and community.

More from Weston Steeves · The The Promises of God series

Topics: Identity, Purpose, Discipleship

Transcript

[0:00] Now I know that we just prayed, but would you guys mind if we prayed again real quick? I can just really feel the presence of God in the room right now. Jesus, we thank You, Jesus. We thank You for each and every person in the room right now. We thank You for the teenagers, we thank You for the elders in the room right now. God, I believe that each and every person is in this room for a reason that You wanna speak to them in this message. God, that You are a waymaker and a miracle worker, that You are gonna work miracles in people's lives today. Jesus, would You speak through me? Would You speak into people's hearts? Would You speak into people's minds? Would You open eyes today? God, to show people the purpose that You have for their lives? In Jesus' name. Amen.

[0:47] Alright, so I'm so excited to be here today. And before I start, I did want to address, maybe there's some confusion in the room right now. So maybe you're sitting here and you're thinking to yourself, is this the guy that was just up here doing the offering? The reason I say that is because usually everywhere I go, most people that I talk to, they throw out this line. They go, you look just like your father. You act just like your dad. You talk just like your dad. And it's the truth, I know, and that has its positives and it has its negatives. But that was my dad, Pastor Pat, who I love very much. Yeah. So as we get started, if we haven't had the chance to meet, my name is Weston Steeves, and as my dad said, I'm a grade 12 student at Harrison Trimble High School, which I think, may be biased, is the best high school in the whole world.

[1:47] And so I did wanna just take a few minutes and thank all of the people who have made this opportunity for me to speak to you all today possible, because oftentimes we put a spotlight on the communicator, right? But what we don't see and what most people don't see is for the past few months, there have been people walking beside me, encouraging me, teaching me, and praying for me so much. And I'm so thankful for that. And that is the reason that I'm able to get up here today. So once again, I want to thank my dad, who has helped me. I want to thank Pastor Jeremy MacDonald, who is actually preaching in Miramichi right now, who has walked beside me and helped me write this message. I wanna thank everyone who has come out to support me this morning. You guys have probably seen a bunch of teenagers here, and there's a few of my teachers in the room this morning. So welcome. I'm so excited that you guys are here.

[2:32] And last but not least, I wanna thank each and every one of you who has been in prayer for me because over the past few months, there have been people in prayer for me and for this message. I had someone come up to me today and they said, Weston, I got up early this morning and I prayed for you. And that means more than anything to me. So I want to thank you all for being here. I wanna thank you all for your encouragement and your prayers. Now, you guys ready to get down to business? Yeah. Alright, so as a church, we have been going through a series called The Promises of God. We have been looking at the promises that God has for our lives this week. We are in the last week of this series, and we are looking at one of the most powerful promises, in my opinion, and that is the promise of purpose.

[3:26] The promise that as we follow Jesus, that we will find our true purpose in life. And so as I started to think about purpose, and I knew that I was gonna be preaching on purpose, I couldn't help but think and look back on one of the biggest eras of my life, okay? And that era was my hockey career, okay? So I grew up playing hockey, but actually I was a little bit of a late bloomer in comparison to most of the people I grew up playing hockey with. Most people started when they were younger, maybe 4, 5, 6 years old. But I actually only started when I was 11. Now, that's not the first time that I was on skates because growing up my dad built us an incredible outdoor rink in our backyard.

[4:16] And so I grew up, basically before I started playing hockey, I was my own coach. I was out there in the cold. That was back when we had real winters, guys, it was cold. And so I'm out there, I'm shooting pucks, running drills. I was out there skating lines on my own because I loved hockey so much. So my parents saw this and they had no choice but to sign me up for organized hockey. So over the course of the next few years, I really only played House League and you probably could have called me the House League hero because I just loved it so much. I thought I was playing professional hockey. Hockey was what I loved. And so one of the interesting things is that our life goes through seasons, right?

[5:02] There's seasons when we enjoy certain things or when we do certain things. And so at a young age, I thought that I was gonna play hockey for the rest of my life. If you would've asked me, Weston, what do you wanna do when you grow up? This is what it was, okay, I want to grow up and play for the Moncton Wildcats, and then I wanna go and play in the NHL. So spoiler alert, neither of those happened, unfortunately. But what I thought was really interesting was that's what I wanted when I was younger. But then my life changed. I turned 16, I had my first dirt bike, I had my first car, I got a job. And so slowly the game that I thought I was gonna play for the rest of my life, my passion for that started to fade. And now this can't leave this room. Okay guys, if I'm being honest, I went from wanting to play for the Moncton Wildcats to now, if you were to ask me, the only reason that I go to Moncton Wildcats games is to get some Go Gee's ice cream between the second and third intermission, if you know, you know.

[6:06] But what I think is really, really cool about my story and career playing hockey is that it mirrors the journey that a lot of us go through with our purpose. So maybe you're here this morning and you have gone through a season like I had where your life is purposeful, you've got it all together, and maybe you're sitting here this morning and you've lost that sense of purpose in your life, that now you're just more focused on getting through the week. Maybe it's just about paying the bills and purpose seems like a lost dream. Or maybe you're chasing that young sense of purpose that I had when I was playing hockey. Maybe you're chasing that in different things in your life.

[6:51] Maybe you're chasing that through your career or your finances or your status or your relationships. Or maybe you're like lots of us in the room this morning and you're graduating, you're moving on to the next chapter in your life, And you're wondering, what is going to bring my life purpose? Now, you see, we were all created with a desire for purpose, a desire to have meaning in our lives. And you guys wanna know what the good news is? The good news is that God's Word promises us purpose. So why don't we jump into our scripture for today so that we can figure out how we can all find the purpose that God has for our lives?

[7:39] Does that sound good? Yes. Does that sound good? Yes. Perfect. Alright, we're gonna be in Ephesians 2:10 this morning. We'll get it pulled up on the screen. It goes like this: For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus to do the good things He planned for us long ago. This is a pretty awesome verse, okay? Because we start off and we see that we are God's masterpiece. I don't know about you guys, I've been called a lot of names, but never a masterpiece, okay? But the truth is that we are God's masterpiece. Each and every person in this room was created by God with desires, with abilities, with talents, and a purpose for our life.

[8:27] We have all been created in the image of God. You are God's masterpiece. And then we get to the end of this verse, and this is where things start to get exciting. This is where my interest peaks, okay? It says that there are good things planned for us. There are good things planned for each and every one of our lives. And this today is where we are going to find how that connects to finding our true purpose. But in order to find our true purpose, in order to understand what these good things are, we have to go back to the middle of this verse where it says that we have been created anew in Christ Jesus. So if you're anything like me and you're reading this for the first time, you're like, "I have no idea what this means." I certainly did not. But today we're gonna dive into the context of Ephesians so that we can understand what this verse says and how we can all find our purpose in our life.

[9:23] You guys ready? Yes. Okay. Alright. So let's break down the context of the verse we see in Ephesians. So there's quite a few people who go to school with me here in the auditorium, and there's even a few of my teachers. So that's a good thing. It's also a bad thing because they can testify that I'm not a big homework guy, okay? I'm not a big homework guy. And when it comes to my classes, I'm very selective. And so I did all that I could to avoid any history class, all right? But when it comes to speaking, I want you guys to know that I've done my homework and I have looked at the history of this verse in its context so that we can all understand what it means.

[10:09] So I'm gonna do my best to summarize it and break it down for you guys. So we see this verse. Ephesians 2:10 is written by a guy named Paul, and he's writing to a church in Ephesus. So Ephesus was a big town back in the day. It was kind of like a hub city, like Moncton. And Ephesus is actually where we call now, modern-day Turkey. And so Paul was in Ephesus for two years. He was preaching, he was teaching, he was telling them about Jesus. He's like, "Guys, this Jesus guy, He did this for you guys. Now you guys have a new life. This is how you guys are supposed to be living." And then a little while later, Paul left and he finds himself in prison.

[10:56] What's interesting about this, Paul was in prison, but Paul was not a criminal. You see, Paul was in prison by Rome. Paul was in prison for his faith, for telling people about Jesus. And so what we can see from this, which is a little side note, that Paul decided and he went to prison and he ended up being killed for his faith and his belief in Jesus. So what he's writing here, he really means. He walked out his faith, he believed this truth, he was willing to die for it. So I think that we really need to take these words, this teaching, seriously. And so Paul is writing this letter to the people in Ephesus. The way that I see it is Paul is basically sending a follow-up email, because Paul, it's kind of like if a preacher came here to Moncton, he's standing on the stage and he's preaching to us.

[11:51] And then he leaves and a few years later he sends an email to us saying, "Guys, remember what I was preaching about? I hope that you guys are living it out. If not, this is what you need to be doing." So he's following up on the church in Ephesus. He's telling them, "Guys, remember who Jesus is. Remember what He's done for you. And remember how you are called to live now." So you guys following? Yes. Okay. So Ephesus was the city, not the book. Ephesians is the book, and it's a short book. It's my kind of book. It's only six chapters. Okay? I think we can all read six chapters. So chapters 1 through 3, this is the summary.

[12:37] Paul is basically saying, "Guys, remember what Jesus did for you. Remember that this is a real thing, that Jesus came to this earth, that Jesus died and He rose, conquering death, giving us hope for our lives." And because of that, we now have a new life. We now have new opportunity with hope and purpose in our life. That's chapters 1 through 3. Chapters 4 to 6, Paul is saying, "Now that I just told you what Jesus did, this is how you should live that out. This is what your life should look like because your life should change." Side note, your life should change. When you know what Jesus has done in your life and done for you, he's saying that this is what Jesus has done, and therefore this is what your life should look like.

[13:33] So when we read Ephesians 2:10, the verse that we had up earlier, it's kind of like a summary of the whole book of Ephesians in a way, because Paul is saying, "You have been made new in Christ Jesus. That because of Jesus' sacrifice, you are made new. You have a life of hope. And now because of what Jesus has done, you are called to live out the good things He has called you to do." So what we see from this verse and what we're gonna begin to understand is that our purpose is rooted right in these words. And as I was researching for this message, and I was thinking in my own life, I think that oftentimes we misunderstand purpose.

[14:20] We tag the word success with purpose. We think that our purpose sometimes comes from a certain amount of money or going to a certain school or having a certain job. Fill in the blank in your own life of those things that we think will fulfill us. But what Paul is teaching here is that our purpose is found in Jesus. Can I get an amen? Amen. That our purpose is found in Jesus. Amen. Because we've all done it. We've all searched for purpose in things other than Jesus. And we've all heard the quotes that you can have it all and still feel empty, that money doesn't buy happiness.

[15:06] And I wanted to share a quote with you guys this morning from the one and only Jim Carrey. He said, "I think that everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they dreamed of so that they can understand that it's not enough." And I think that that's the truth. And I think that even though we know that, we still sometimes chase it. But today in this room, I want you guys to know that our purpose can't be found in those things. Yes, there's nothing wrong with pursuing those things, but it will never be enough. It's a constant chase. And when we, if we wanna find our true purpose in life, it all starts with becoming more like Jesus so that we can walk into the good things He's calling us to do.

[16:00] So you're probably saying, "All right, Weston, I'm following with you. You're saying that purpose doesn't come from things. That purpose comes from becoming more like Jesus. So if I become more like Jesus, then I can find the good things." That is what I'm saying. And so maybe you're thinking to yourself, "Well, what does it look like to become more like Jesus? And why should I become more like Jesus? How will that help me get into the right school that I'm supposed to go? How will that help me get the right job or the right pay? How does this all work out?" Well, I'm glad you asked. This all works out and we see that we will find our true purpose when we live out the truth of this verse.

[16:47] But I want you guys to understand what it really looks like to become more like Jesus so that we can find our purpose. So I've got a little bit of an analogy slash story to share with you guys. So over the past 40 weeks, I've been going through something called Invisalign treatment. So if you don't know what Invisalign is, it's basically like braces. But instead of the steel rod and everything that goes on your teeth, it's just clear retainers, kind of like mouth guards that go on your teeth. And each week you get a new set of retainers that you put in and wear all day. You take 'em out when you eat and they begin to shift your teeth closer to that perfect smile. So that's what I've been up to the past 40 weeks. And so I can remember going into the orthodontist office for the first time, and he's like, mind you, I had some pretty crooked teeth at the time, right?

[17:44] So I wasn't sure if I could be saved. And I can remember the orthodontist telling me, "Weston, you can have a perfect smile. You see the pictures on the wall of all the people before and after." He's like, "This could be you. It can be you." I was like, "Okay, sign me up," right? I was like, "It can't be that hard." But what I began to realize over the course of those 40 weeks was that it was not easy. I had to put in some work. So if you know me, you know that I have a really hard time at keeping track of my things, okay? I lose things left and right. It's not good. But I kept track of retainers for 40 weeks, which I'm pretty proud of.

[18:31] I had to thank you for laughing. I appreciate that. I had to keep track of my retainers, I had to change them on time. I had to put elastics in my mouth. I had to brush my teeth after every meal and put them back in. And I had to deal with the discomfort of my teeth beginning to shift. And what God has begun to reveal to me is that our relationship with Him and becoming more like Jesus is actually really similar to Invisalign treatment. Because just like the orthodontist promised, he said, "Weston, you can have this perfect smile. You can have this. I want you to have this." God is saying, "I have a purpose for you.

[19:16] I have good things for you. I want you to have this." But just like the Invisalign treatment, it doesn't happen all of a sudden. We have to put in the work with our relationship with God so that we can become and be shaped more like Jesus. That takes time in His presence. That takes time and prayer. That takes time in the Bible, that takes sacrifice. Not doing what everyone else is doing, being counter-cultural. We have to put in the work if we want to find our purpose. Thank. And like I said, the orthodontist, he wanted me to have the perfect smile, but he couldn't do it for me.

[20:08] I had to put in the work. Can I tell you this morning that God has a purpose for your life? God has good things for your life. He wants you to find those things. He doesn't want you to keep chasing purpose in things that will never last. He wants you to find purpose in Him. So just like the Invisalign, God wants you to find your purpose. And when we put in the work, we find our purpose. So you might be thinking, at least this was my thought, what is my spiritual Invisalign?

[20:53] What are the things that I have to do? What are the ways that I have to be shaped? How does this work? Because I don't know about you guys, but I wanna find my purpose. I wanna find those good things that He's calling me into. And I think that if we really do wanna have purpose, we should be asking ourselves, "What's my spiritual Invisalign?" Well, I would love to share that with you. Over the past many years, I guess I don't know the exact number, my life has seriously changed because I think we've all heard the quote that you're the sum of the five people that you hang out with or the five people you spend your time with, whatever that quote is. I've been spending my time with some incredible people.

[21:39] God has been bringing me some incredible people in my life who have helped me change my life and become more like Jesus. Over the past year and a half, there is a group of people in this room, some of 'em are in this room that are part of this church, a part of this youth group. And we have become a group and we meet every single Sunday. And we've been going through different Bible studies and different things. And so it started off just going through different books of the Bible, seeking God, trying to figure out what the Bible is saying and how it can apply to our lives. And then we've kind of moved on from there. We've drawn closer as a group. We've drawn closer to Jesus and we just, we wanted something more. And so we started this course called Practicing the Way. So if you haven't heard of Practicing the Way, a summary is, it's a course of videos.

[22:26] And so we go and we watch a video together as a group, and it goes through practicing the way that Jesus lived, the things that Jesus taught. And so we have been practicing to live the way that Jesus is calling us to live. What's been really cool is to see myself and those around me understand and come to find their true purpose in life, their true purpose and becoming more like Jesus through seeking God in prayer. We've been learning what it means to actually pray. We've been learning how to pray. We've been setting daily prayer rhythms where we're getting up in the morning or before bed. We are praying and seeking God. We are reading the Bible. We're learning how to read the Bible, how to understand the Bible, how to apply it to our lives.

[23:13] And this is a little bit crazy, but we've been exploring different things like fasting, which for me, I'm a big food guy. And so that's not easy. But we've been going sometimes hours or days without food so that we can seek God and become more like Jesus. We've been taking up things like the Sabbath, which if you don't know what Sabbath is, it basically means when you don't work one day out of the week to honor God and to enjoy the things that He has given you. And so we've been looking at, although we're young and we don't have full-time jobs, we've been looking at what it looks like to take one day a week off, not to work, not to do schoolwork, but just to enjoy each other and enjoy what God has done in our lives. And so what's been cool is not only have we drawn closer as a group, but we have all understood and have become more like Jesus.

[24:03] Another cool thing is God has also brought me another group of friends, and most of them are in the room this morning. And I gotta tell you guys, these people, they know how to pray and they know how to worship. And they've invited me into their group. They've invited me into their homes, and I am so grateful for that. And they have taught me what it means to pray, what it means to seek God and really live out my faith. It gets to the point sometimes where we're hanging out and we have a meal and then we start praying and we just go for hours, okay? Like it's crazy. I never thought that I could pray for hours, but we find ourselves, it's 12 in the morning and we're like, "All right, we should probably go home, guys." And so you try this, okay, so you're rolling in late, you were probably supposed to be home at 10 o'clock and you're driving in the driveway at 12 o'clock and your parents are waiting up for you and you have to explain to them that you were praying.

[24:57] That's not easy. They're like, "Weston, you can just tell us if you were at a party." Like, "I pro-" Like, "It was a bit of a party, but we were just praying." So overall, with all the amazing people who God has brought in my life together, we have started to learn what it looks like to become like Jesus. We have started to understand and walk into Ephesians 2:10, started to understand that middle part that says that we have been created anew in Christ Jesus. We have started to understand that because of Jesus, we are made new and we are open to a new life. And we have found purpose in that.

[25:46] And so you may be saying, "Well, Weston, like, that's great that you guys found your purpose in Jesus, but like, I need a job. I need a relationship. I need money." And those things will come. And that's what we have seen. We have seen that as we walk out our faith, as we seek Jesus, as we understand that we are made new in Him, God has been faithful to His promise. God has been faithful because not only has He given us a purpose and a hope in becoming more like Him, which, like, I can testify that my life just has purpose in everything that I do. Now, not only that, but God has gone up and above and fulfilled His promise that He would guide us into the good things He planned for us.

[26:36] And some of those real life examples are in the room. There are people in my Bible study group that from becoming more like Jesus, devoting their life to Jesus, that God has started to direct them into maybe the universities that they're going into. We have someone in our small group who has felt God lead them into full-time ministry, and they're gonna be going to Kingswood University in the fall. We have others who have felt a call to go to Crandall University. Others have been able to realize how God is using their gifts and abilities in this church to volunteer. It has been incredible to see. And in my own life, if you know me a little bit, I love working, okay? I love working in our family business in excavation, and that's my dream.

[27:26] I really want to take over our family business. I wanna make my dad proud. I wanna work hard and carry on the Steeves family legacy. But over these past few years, I've had to wrestle with feeling a call further than just digging dirt. I have felt God calling me to something deeper, something bigger, and I wasn't sure what that was. And so that led me to a lot of difficult times wondering, "What is my purpose?" Because I felt like the one thing that I found purpose in, which was working, that God was saying, "You can't have that." And so I was so frustrated with God. There was times when I wanted to walk away from my faith and just give up because I was like, "I just, I don't feel purpose in anything."

[28:15] But what ended up happening over the past few years with my Bible study group, and as I have begun to take my faith seriously, as I have changed the way I live, as I've devoted myself to Jesus, first seeking Him first, praying, reading the Bible, being in community with my small group, not only have I found purpose in becoming more like Jesus, but God has opened doors for me. Some of those open doors are being able to speak to all of you guys today, which is an incredible opportunity. Another one of those opportunities that could have only been orchestrated by God is that I have the honor and the privilege to have been elected as my grad class valedictorian speaker.

[29:04] And I'll be doing that in two weeks. Others of those things, if you've been a part of this church for the past few months, you've seen that balcony start to get a little bit more full. You've probably heard it. It's a little louder now. And that's because we have seen over 100 teenagers come to church over the past few months. And so God has been able to use me and my Bible study group to be able to go out in our schools and invite people and help people come to Jesus. And we have found purpose in that. Another one of those things that I wanna share real quick is I just wanna highlight two of my best friends who are sitting in the room this morning, Devin and Ethan.

[29:53] They are two of the 100 teenagers who have started coming to church this year. And over the past few months, they have made the decision to follow Jesus. I am so proud of them and to be able to walk beside them and see their lives change has encouraged me. But what's been really cool is that God has used me and the others in my friend groups to walk beside Ethan and Devin. beside Ethan and Devin. And God has showed us how our purpose can be in walking beside others and helping them and speaking into their lives. And so God has just been so faithful time and time and time and time and time again as I have begun to put Jesus first and become more like Him. I look back, I can't even, I don't even understand the person that I was in grade nine, grade 10.

[30:43] God has completely changed my life. I am a new person and He has opened doors that I could have never opened on my own. And so that's why when people come up to me and they congratulate me on being valedictorian, it's like, I don't know what to say because it is only by God. That is an opportunity that God has given me that I'm so thankful for. That's not just a cliche that I'm saying. That He gave me the gifts, He gave me the opportunity, and He really spoke through me, that as I look back on how I've devoted my life to Jesus, He has been faithful, guys. He has been faithful. Ultimately, the lesson that I've learned that sums that up is that as we become more like Jesus, not only do we find the ultimate purpose in Him, but He does open the doors to the real life purpose, to the real life, good things He is calling us to.

[31:44] But here's sometimes where we get it wrong. Here's sometimes how we misunderstand this verse, because the verse starts off and it says that we are made new in Christ Jesus. And I fall into it myself where we don't truly understand what that means. That we hear at church that Jesus died for us. We hear it on Easter that we know that. But I think that some of us don't truly understand what that actually means. I think that some of us don't truly understand that Jesus was a real man who really walked this earth, who really came and took your sins and died so that you could be set free to this new life through Jesus. I think that some of us don't fully understand that truth, and because of that, our lives don't change.

[32:36] Because as you've seen in my story, in the story of those around me, that when you know who Jesus is and what Jesus has done in your life, you can't help but have your life change. It's not possible. And so I think that if your life is not changing, then maybe you're not fully following Jesus and understanding what He has done for you. And so I think that it's because of this. I think it's because people don't understand, people's lives aren't changing, that they are not finding their purpose. I think that's why so many people today are lost without hope, without purpose, wondering, what is the point of my life?

[33:23] And so as we kind of begin to close, like, I have really struggled with how to end this message because as someone coming up here and all the time and the effort that you put in, like, my hope, my dream is that each and every one of you guys will walk out of here knowing your purpose or at least feeling driven to find your purpose. But I know that that's probably not going to happen. And so here is my hope today. This is what I hope that you can walk away with today and understand this one truth. That purpose has a price, that purpose has a price, and that price is presence.

[34:15] It's just like I've shared today that my Bible study group has found purpose, but that purpose has only been found in presence, presence, time with God. And one of the problems with this is that we live in a world that neglects and runs from presence. We don't like taking time to do things. And I'm guilty of that. I'm a very impatient person. We want the best result with the minimal amount of effort. We wanna lose the most weight with exercising the least. We want the nicest thing with paying the least. But what I've learned, and I want you to hear this this morning, is that our relationship with Jesus is completely opposite.

[35:05] That the more time you spend in the presence of God, and this is the only way it'll happen, the more time you spend in the presence of God, the more your life begins to change. You see, if you wanna find your purpose, you have to spend time in the presence of God. And we have seen that play out. And I'll just touch back on our story again, that as we have really sought God and spent time in His presence, I wanna just emphasize that it hasn't been super easy. I know that we're not full grown adults with full-time jobs, and we may not be as busy as a single mom or a dad working three jobs.

[35:53] Wherever you find yourself this morning, I understand that life is busy, but over the course of the past few years, there's been things going on in our lives. There's been difficult times. There's been things that we would rather be doing than going to Bible study. We have sports, we have school, we have homework, but we have prioritized Jesus. We have prioritized the presence of God. And through that, and only through that, have we found and are continuing to find our purpose. So the truth is that purpose is and only can be found in presence. That purpose has a price.

[36:38] And I think that as I share, that purpose has a price and that price is presence, that it takes time, that there's some lies that the devil puts in our minds as we hear that there's two lies that I believe that he puts in our mind. The first lie is that I can't do that. Weston, like, that's great that you guys found your purpose, but I'm too busy to read my Bible. I don't know how to pray. I don't know how to do this. Not with my job, not with my habits, not with my family. I can't. And the truth is that you can, when you make time for Jesus, little by little, one minute a day, two minutes a day, three minutes a day, four minutes a day, five minutes a day, more and more each and every day, each and every week with God working through your life, you can and you can find your purpose.

[37:30] There's an even more dangerous lie being spread in this room this morning. And I want you to hear this, that not only is there a lie that says that I can't, there is a lie that I like to call comfort. There is a lie that says, thanks for getting up here and speaking, Weston, but, like, I'm already doing that. I'm already like, I'm a good Christian. Like, I come to church, I go to church on Easter and I do my YouVersion Bible plan every day. But the truth is that maybe you have fallen into comfortable Christianity.

[38:17] And what I've learned and seen in my own life is that when we fall into comfortable Christianity, we do not find our calling. That is the truth, that if you wanna find your purpose, if you wanna find your calling, you have to step up, you have to step out. You have to be bold in your faith. You have to do things you don't wanna do. You have to do things other people aren't doing. But I can tell you that you will find a purpose that other people don't have. So as I close, my question for you today is, what is the price that you need to pay? What is the price that you need to pay?

[39:03] Because God has a purpose for each and every one of you. It's true. It's not just an idea. It's not just a cliche that God has a purpose. God has good things for you. But as we've seen, just like my Invisalign, it took work. It took putting in my retainers. It takes work for us to be shifted, to be able to walk into our purpose. What is the price for you? Maybe this is your first time. Maybe you've never been in this church before. Maybe you haven't been in a while, and that price for you is getting up next Sunday and coming to church and the Sunday after that, continuing to come and make that sacrifice each and every week. Maybe for other of us in the room, you need to pay the price of being intentional in the presence of God.

[39:53] Maybe you read your Bible, maybe you pray, but I think it's time for some of us to step it up a little bit. I think it's time for some of us not to check off the box that we read our Bible and prayed, but to spend time in the presence of God in all that we have going on, to sit down and read the Word of God and see what it has to say for our lives, because it has changed my life and it will change yours. I think it's time for us to step up in prayer, not just seeking God for what we can get, but seeking God for who He is. Ultimately, church, I think that it's time for us to be living out our faith. Whatever that looks like for you, wherever you're at in your faith, whatever things hold you down, whatever you struggle with, wherever you're missing purpose, I want to encourage you this morning to pay the price.

[40:46] Whatever that price is for you, how difficult it may be. I urge you this morning to pay it, because the places that God will bring you are further and more than you could ever imagine. God can do so much with so little. So I urge you this morning to pay it. And so I want to close with our scripture that we started with, Ephesians 2:10. I want us all to leave knowing that we have been made new in Jesus. That this is a real thing, that Jesus offers us a hope in our lives. And as we seek Him, as we devote ourselves to Him, as we spend time in His presence, we will walk into the good things, the purposes, the plans that He has for our lives, the things that are actually made for us, not the things that we chase after in this life, not the right university, not the right job, not the right paycheck, that we will find purpose in Jesus.

[41:51] Whew, guys, I can't stress this enough because I've seen it in my own life. And so I want you all to leave today knowing that not only does purpose have a price, and that that price is presence, but that purpose is possible. Purpose is possible for each and every one of you. Whatever you're going through, wherever you are in your life, that purpose is possible. The question isn't whether your life could have purpose. I'll close with this. The question isn't whether your life could or will have purpose.

[42:36] The question is, will you find it? Thank you.