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Ridgecrest Baptist Church is located in Dothan, AL and exists to Reach the lost, Build the believer, and Connect people of God to the mission and purpose of God.
INTRODUCTION
I'm so glad to begin this new year with a new series. I've been looking forward to this series for a little while. On purpose you saw the video introduction and you heard Aaron talking about that. God has designed us to live our lives on purpose. You're not a mistake, you're not an accident, you're not here by happenstance. You're here by the purpose of God and you have a purpose. Your existence is purposeful and that's a wonderful thing if you get that.
Thomas Carlisle said this. He said a person without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder, a wave, a nothing, a no person, a no man. Have a purpose in life and then having it throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you. That's what we're going to be talking about in this series, this purpose that God has put us on this planet. If you're here, you're breathing, you're alive, you have a purpose, you have a reason for your existence, and when that reason is over, god will take you to heaven, god will call you home. But as long as you're here, you have this purpose, and understanding and living out that purpose is meaningful. It's what gives our life meaning, and so we begin this new year with this new series, and I believe it's important to understand the purpose that you've been created for, because I believe we're living at a crossroad in history.
I believe, more than ever before in my life, we're at a crossroad in history. We're no longer living in an age where the values of Scripture and the commands of God govern the ideas and the philosophies and the morality of our nation and our culture, and they no longer shape our decisions and our directions. In fact, sadly for many Christians, that's true that they're no longer shaped and driven by the truths of God. They're driven more by the winds and the waves of the culture. And I believe, more than ever before, that the path we take at this time in our life, at this crossroad, will make all the difference, both in our life and in how we run the race that God has given us and in the generations that are going to come after us. That's why living your life on purpose is vital. It's vital for our church, it's vital for you personally, it's vital for this nation, I believe it's vital for the globe and I believe it's vital to your spiritual health and strategic for the kingdom of God.
And with that in mind, I want to begin this service Today, I want to give you kind of what I would call a bird's eye view and overview. In other words, I want to give you three principles on intentional living, because you need these three things first, before you get into the specifics of living intentionally, and that's what we'll be talking about in the weeks to come intentionally praying, intentional stewardship, intentional students of the Word of God and many other things. Intentional worship, all of these kinds of things which shape us according to the truth of God. But if you're physically able to do so, stand with me this morning as we read our text, beginning verse 15 of Ephesians, chapter five. Paul writes this look carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. May I say amen. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for everything and for everything to God, the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Father, thank you for the wonderful truth of your Word that governs and guides us, and help us in this new year, father, to take it seriously, to order our lives by it, to allow it to shape our thoughts and our decisions and to direct us that we might be light and salt in a dark culture, or use your Word this morning in our lives to bring conviction and correction. Would you take my study and my mind and my thoughts and my words now, father, and let them be pleasing to you, o Lord, my rock and my redeemer, in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, you can be seated Now.
Of course Paul is right into the church at Ephesus. I've been to Ephesus there still remains there of the church in Ephesus in the southern part of Turkey and the culture in Ephesus was a center. It was a center for many commerce. It was a major commercial city, but it's also a major center for pagan worship. In fact, the Ephesian culture worshiped the God Bacchus, which was the God of wine and drunken orgies.
And Paul is writing to the church. He's warning them not to get swept up in the spirit of the age. Don't let the culture sweep you up and change who you are. He's writing to them to tell them to not to be deceived and to replace the truth of God with the empty religious ideas and practices that were common in their culture, and that they were not to allow the world, the flesh and the devil to pull them away from the very purpose for which they were created, for which they existed. And to do this, paul exhorts them to be spiritually wise, to be serious minded. He tells them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to be focused on doing God's will. Appropriate counsel for us today amen.
TWO LIFE-ALTERING FACTS:
To begin this, I think there are two things you ought to understand. I prefaced a series I did a few months ago on the will of God, and we established a couple of things. A couple of things were this Number one the most important thing in the universe is the will of God. And if that's the most important thing in the universe, then the most important thing for you in the universe is to do the will of God right. Well, I want to give you a couple of more life, what I call life altering facts, as we begin this series, and they go like this these are two again life altering kinds of facts that should change the way you live your life every day. If you get these, it will.
GOD HAS A SOVEREIGN PLAN
The first is this God has a sovereign plan. God has a sovereign plan. In other words, everything is moving according to the ultimate plans of God. Now you see a lot of chaos in the world around you, right? You wonder does this thing, where is this all going? And we may not all understand that, but nothing has taken God by surprise. God has a sovereign plan. That plan is going to work. It's going to happen at the end of the day, and that's why, by the way, be on God's team, because we know how this story ends up. It's going to get darker, by the way class, before it gets brighter, but it will get brighter.
I'm a pessimistic optimist. All right, I know how it ends and so, because of that, I live with encouragement and the hope of the gospel and what Jesus does in our life. And I also know this that dark days are ahead before the brighter days come. But God is working a plan. I believe that anything takes God by surprise. Nothing takes him by surprise. His plans are working, they're moving, and that's a fact.
A sovereign plan. What do we mean by sovereign? It means that God has determined the plan sovereignly. He is the sovereign king. We sometimes refer to a king as a sovereign. It's a sovereign plan, this is his plan. And when we say it's his sovereign plan, it means this he doesn't have to explain it to you. He doesn't have to say okay, let me help you understand Now. See, our world always says things like that. Well, if God would just explain why he does this, or if God would just God doesn't have to explain to anybody, it's a sovereign plan. Now, you don't have to like his sovereign plan, but it doesn't mean he must answer to you. You will answer to him. You were created, the Bible says, for his pleasure in Revelation you were created for his pleasure. You and I will answer to him. It is the point of man wants to die. And after this, what class the judgment? All of us will stand before him and nobody is going to stand before him or bow before him. It's probably a better way to say it at the judgment and say you know what, as I bow here, I just have a question. I don't think you handled things right. Won't be any of that. God is working his sovereign plan.
YOU HAVE A SOVEREIGN PURPOSE
The second life altering fact that you and I must understand that will order our life is when we understand that you and I have a sovereign purpose. You have a sovereign purpose. What do we mean by that? The sovereign created you with a purpose. We're all different. I'll talk in this series at some point in time about the gifts that you have, the gifts that God has, the abilities and all of that. We'll talk about those sorts of things at some point in time in this series.
But the fact is, god created you with purpose. You're just now. God wasn't bored in heaven. He wasn't bored in heaven and saying, well, I don't have anything better to do, so I'm going to create you. He created you. He created you uniquely and the way you are created is for his purpose and his plan.
Now here's the key. You can. You can reject that. You can say I'm not going to follow God, I'm not going to do what God created me to do. It isn't a loss to God. It is a loss to you in heaven, in the kingdom. It is your loss because God's going to accomplish his plan. What he's done is he's created you and enabled you to be a part of fulfilling that plan to the extent that it brings fulfillment and purpose in your life. So that plan that God has involves you, but it doesn't require you. God's not going to say if you reject the plans or purposes, god's not going to wring his hands in heaven and saying how are we going to pull this off? How am I going to do what I need to do? God's going to get his plan done. So those, those, those two ideas should be life altering for you and I the sovereign plan of God and the sovereign purpose for which you were created.
You see, life without purpose is meaningless. Life without purpose is pointless. By the way, that's why the theory of evolution is is so discouraging. You see, if evolution is true, that means that you have no purpose. Did you know that? If evolution is true, it means you just were an accident and you know some prehistoric soup. You got struck by lightning and tadpole crawled out and eventually it just. Eventually it got legs and wings and eventually it moved on and got hair and fur and well, you know, from goo to the to you by way of the zoo. I mean, that's how I'm just pressing. That means you're just. You're just a product of random chance.
If evolution is true, which they want you to believe these days? Why? Because the alternative isn't acceptable. The alternative says well, if evolution isn't true this is why it's taught in our schools If evolution isn't true, then that means there has to be some other means of creation. Hello, and that other means of creation would be who? It would be the.
You are a special creation of God. You are fearfully and wonderfully created. The Psalmist rights crafted like a mosaic, woven together by the hand of God. And so if, if, if, evolution isn't true, then we've got to say well, then we were created, we were created on purpose by God, and then that means what God sets, the rules. Our culture doesn't want God's rules, and so we've got to get away. We've got to see. You go all the way back. You get all the way back to the very beginning and you realize. That's why it's important If you don't get the beginning right, you won't get the ending right. And so that's why you are the product of a wise, loving God who created you, and that will alter the reason for your existence. That will cause you to say I'm here, the gifts I have are given to me by God for a reason. I have this purpose in my existing life. Without that is meaningless. But you were fearfully and wonderfully made. Your existence has meaning fulfillment, and so those two things God has a sovereign plan and you have a sovereign purpose are life changers. They are game changers for you.
Never forget that as we work through all that we'll be talking about in the weeks ahead.
THREE PRINCIPLES FOR LIVING INTENTIONALLY
With that in mind, I want to begin our series with this kind of big picture introduction. As I said, if you're going to live your life on purpose, I think there are three principles for living intentionally that you need, that are given to us by Paul in this passage.
INTENTIONAL OBSERVATION
The first is this Paul gives us this intentional observation Verse 15, keep your Bibles open. If you look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. Look carefully then how you walk.
The Greek word here that's used for the expression look carefully is a word that means to look around, and it means more than just to see. It doesn't just mean well, I just I kind of look around. What it means is to be completely observant, aware of everything that's going on around you. It does involve, certainly, looking and seeing, but it means more than that. It means understanding what's going on around you. It means taking it all in. It means being constantly observant, constantly aware, intentionally looking around you so that you can walk accordingly. It means to take it all in so that you're not taken by surprise, and it's in contrast. It's in contrast with the state of believers that Paul mentioned in verse 14. Look at verse 14, because we didn't read that, for anything that becomes visible is like. Therefore, it says awake, oh sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Who is Paul's talking about? Believers that are acting like they're dead, they're asleep, when he's saying be observant, look around you, be careful, look at what's going on all around you and see what's really happening.
Let me give you a couple of thoughts that'll help you be intentionally observant.
HOW TO BE INTENTIONALLY OBSERVANT
First of all, it is this whole idea of living your life with urgency. You see, when you pay careful attention to what's happening around you and the implications of what results from what's happening around you, it should create a sense of urgency about how you live. I didn't say panic, I didn't say panic, I said urgency. Do you know?
The studies are showing us today that there's a decline, a pretty serious decline, in the evangelical church in America, really across the globe, and they're trying to figure out what's caused it. And that's where a lot of it is, the secularization, and you don't need to hear me go into all of that right now. I've got that's coming in another message. But there are a lot of reasons that they point to and everything. But what part of it is? We know something we have lost urgency in how we live the gospel. We've decided to be more of get along and go along. You do your thing, we'll do our thing. You know what happened? What characterized us up until really about the mid 1980s was a sense of urgency that we had to get the gospel to the world and to everybody because Jesus Christ is gonna return. And once we began to move away from the taking seriously the fact that Jesus is gonna return, guess what? Well, evangelism doesn't become that important, helping people into the kingdom of God doesn't become that important and the church becomes more of a get along in order to go along than it does have this sense of urgency.
Now, thanks to poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, we all know about the midnight ride of Paul Revere, don't you? You know about the midnight ride of Paul Revere. You remember that. You probably read that in Scootlist. I did. I don't know if they read that. There are probably some council culture reason to take that out nowadays, but the midnight ride of Paul Revere, but a lot of people. We know that, but few people have heard of Israel Bissell. You heard of Israel Bissell anybody? I didn't. You think I probably had heard of him, but I hadn't until I read the article.
Israel Bissell was a postman at the same time during the Revolutionary, the start of the Revolutionary War. When he was a postwriter he had the circuit between Boston and New York and after the battle of Lexington and Concord that broke out in April 1917, 1975, bissell was ordered to raise the alarm in New Haven, connecticut, and he reached. He took off on his journey, reached Worcester, massachusetts, in two hours, which was considered a day's ride, and if history is accurate, when he got there he had ridden his horse so hard for two hours that the horse died upon reaching. Reaching the destination there at Worcester Pausing. He got another mount and he took off again and he pressed on and within a couple of days he was in New Haven. But he didn't stop there. He rode on from New Haven to New York, arriving on April 24th, and then he stayed in the saddle until he also reached Philadelphia. The very next day, bissell took an urgent 126-hour trip. He stayed on his horse, riding from place to place, 345 miles, urgently riding to signal from one locale to the next that there was a war that had broken out and everybody needed to mobilize.
You remember Israel Bissell? He did it behind the scenes, but he understood there was a war going on. Well, you and I need to live with that same kind of urgency. There is a war going on. We talk about culture wars. There are culture wars going on, but I wanna tell you, culture wars pale in comparison to the spiritual war that's going on, a war that's being fought in the heavenlies. It has cultural implications, it has practical implications in your life from day to day, but it is a war. There's a war going on and we need, in 2024, and I wanna invite you to join me in having a new sense of urgency about how we live for Christ, in the midst of a spiritual war that's going on to live carefully and to notify others and to not be afraid to say no, we're in a war. Did you know? You're in a war. A rise, a wake is what he says. He contrasts this to those Christians who had, for all intents and purposes, just kind of fallen asleep. Isn't it amazing that it takes something catastrophic to wake us up? Isn't it amazing? I do this every year.
I start pulling out all the prophecies for the new year Prophecies and predictions. I'm not just talking about Christian prophecies, and there are some bizarre ones. They're the prophecies of Nostradamus. They've already released his for 2024, and there's some interesting ones. He says the pope will die. If it's accurate, the pope will die. He predicts that King Charles III will lose the throne in England this year.
Look, don't look at him and say well, nostradamus said it, stick with the ball and one pundit riding about. And there's some other bizarre ones that he has. And he says there'll be climate issues. Well, duh, you know. So there are other. There are financial pundits there. I was reading some that were predicting a fantastic financial year, the recession going down, employment going up and interest rates going down. And then there were others that were saying the end of the financial world is at hand, which means they don't know.
But look, and, by the way, this one article about Nostradamus said 70% of everything Nostradamus has predicted has come through and, by the way, it's very arbitrary If you've ever read that stuff, you say, how did you get that from that? But anyway, 70%, I wanna tell you. People say that's pretty good. I wanna tell you, biblically, that's not very good. You know what the qualifications to be a biblical prophet are 100%. So he only missed by 30% In the Old Testament. That got him stoned. I don't know, maybe it was stoned when he made the predictions. I shouldn't have said that.
But at any rate, we need to live with urgency. We don't know what's coming, do we? And there will be surprises in 2024 that no one anticipated. There will be horrors in 2024. There will be blessings in 2024. We don't know. But what we do know is that we don't know what's coming. We don't know what's coming. We don't know. But what we do know is one day Jesus is going to return, and because that's true, we need to live intentionally with urgency.
But he also tells us to live with wisdom. He says we have two options. He says you can live as wise or unwise. Did you notice that you have two options? Now you know I don't wanna insult your intelligence, but he says you have an option you can live wisely or unwisely. Duh right Implied here is that you will choose to live wisely.
The wise person is the spiritually minded person who lives their life on purpose and lives it intentionally. They know God personally and they know that they are on earth to live a righteous and godly life and to serve Christ. So when they arise in the morning and they go to work, they go about their daily affairs. They do so by walking in the presence and the praise of God, because they're here on purpose. In contrast, the unwise and you would say in this case the unwise Christian is not careful in their observation. They become lethargic, lazy, sleepy spiritually, and the evil nature of this age can overtake them and keep them from living out and intentionally in the will of God. So he says look carefully how you walk, be intentional in your observation of what's going on around you so you can live wisely, so that you can live urgently, not in panic, hello Not in panic, but with a sense of urgency.
INTENTIONAL OPERATION
Now here's the second thing, the second principle I would give you this morning If you want to live on purpose this year, then you need intentional operation. Not just intentional observation, but intentional operation. Look at verse 16, he says making the best use of the time because the days are evil. What's he talking about there? He's talking about how you operate and he's talking about the priorities of your life, making the best use of your time because the days you check your schedule and your clock and it will show you what you believe is important. Your schedule and your clock I might even add your checkbook will show you what the priorities of your life are. And so he tells us right here, in verse 16, he says making the best use of your time. That's your operation.
Someone has calculated this is some years back and I came across this again as I was working on this message about how a typical 70 year life is spent. I don't know how they arrived at this, but here's how they estimated the average 70 year old life 23 years of sleep that's 32.9% of your life. 16 years of work that's 22.8% of your life. Eight years of television that's 11.4% of your life. Six years eating that's 8.6% of your life. Now, obviously this survey wasn't taken abaddist. Six years of travel 8.6% of your life. 4.5 years of leisure, hobbies, recreation, that sort of thing 6.5%. Four years of illness 5.7% of your life. Listen to this one two years, two years of dressing, dressing, putting your clothes on. I'm worn out of 70 years. I've been dressing two years, these clothes have worn me out, and then last 0.5 years, 0.7% spent in religion. Wow, for a total of 70 years.
You know what Paul is saying. He said look, you only have so much time. Use your time wisely. And he gives us a couple of thoughts about this. One is he gives us an exhortation to time management. Now, there are all sorts of tools, and that's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about your day planner or your electronic calendar keeper or those sorts of things. Those are all fine. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the time management. Those sorts of things. Those are all fine. That's not what he's talking about here. But he's exhorting us to make the most of the time that we have.
Each day has 24 hours, it has 1,440 minutes, it has 86,400 seconds, and every one of those is a precious gift to you from God. Time is something we feel we never have enough of right, yet we give it away so easily. Someone said this one time. They said time is free, but it's priceless. You can own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it, but once you've lost it, you can never get it back. Time's a gift from God. A person does not have to redeem time.
Some translations say redeeming the time. The idea there if your translation says that it is a better idea to say what we see here, make the best use, because it's not actually talking about buying time. It's not actually talking about purchasing the time. It's talking about how you use the time so you redeem it. That way. It's like a gift card.
Did anybody get gift cards at Christmas? Y'all get gift cards at Christmas. Gift cards are great, aren't they? And you get to redeem them. You get to redeem them whenever you want, however you want, and they're as good as you're redeeming them. But you didn't buy them. They were given to you. Well, that's the idea here that God has given you some time and you can redeem that time, but that time should be redeemed in alignment with His purpose for your life. You see you have time. Reusing it just is the important thing. How are you gonna do it? When you were born into this world, you were born into time. Time exists. It is here with us or without us, and we don't have to do a single thing to actually purchase time. What we do have to do is use it, and we have to use it on purpose. We have to use it to do the thing that we were put here for.
I think I've shared this in messages through the years with you before, but there was an old movie called City Slickers Any of you remember that had Billy Crystal in it, jack Pylons. You remember Jack Pylons, this old, rugged cowboy, and Billy Crystal's, this middle-aged guy. He and his wife are trying to kinda find out what's the next step in life. They've been relatively successful, but life is. They're trying to find meaning and purpose. They go to this dude ranch and they spend some time there. And one day Billy Crystal is out on his horse with Jack Pylons, who they're herding cattle for the day. Maybe you recall the scene. And so, in a moment of honesty, billy Crystal begins to say to Jack Pylons, said you know, I'm just kind of wondering what it's all about. And Jack Pylons says to Billy Crystal he says well, the secret of life is this. And Billy Crystal looks back and says the secret of life is your finger. To which Paul said no, no, the secret of life is one thing, it's one thing. And Billy Crystal says to him what's the one thing? And Paul says that's what you've got to find out, that's what you've got to find out. You know what Paul is saying. Listen, be wise, be careful, make the most of your time, because there is a reason you're here and you are to use that and you will be accountable for that purpose and that reason One day.
We talk about stewardship. I'll be talking about that soon in this series, but we'll talk about how we give an account to God for stewardship. Well, that you give an. Did you know the purpose that you were created for? As a part of your stewardship? We don't have to, we don't have to do anything to buy time. We have been given time. We have to use what we've been given. We're all allotted. We're all allotted a certain amount and it's not the same.
And, by the way, you say and I don't think that's fair Will you take that up with the sovereign plan of God, that's life altering, and the sovereign purpose he has for you? But I will tell you this no matter how much time you have, you have enough time to do the will of God for you. We have a limited amount, but we all have enough time to do everything that God created us to do. No one in heaven will ever say to God God, you didn't give me enough time. No one will ever say, god, you didn't give me enough time. Every one of us have the time that God has allotted us. That's not the question how do I get more time? The question is am I using the time that I've been given for the glory of God? Am I using it on purpose?
And so he gives us this exhortation to time management, but then he also gives us the motivation for time management. Did you see what it was he said? Because the days are evil, and that's closely connected to the idea of urgency, this matter of priority. Given the fact that the days are evil, we need to make sure that we handle this time properly. Robert Moffat, the doctor missionary, said this. He said we will have all of eternity to celebrate our victories, but only one short hour before sunset to win them. Do you get that? We'll have all of eternity to celebrate our victories, but we've only got one short hour before sunset to win them. That's why Jesus said I must work the works of Him that sent me. While it is day, night comes when no man can work for God. The darker the age, the harder it will be to use your time for the purposes of God, and Paul's message is that we must take advantage of every opportunity that we have for God right now.
Do you want to live intentionally in 2024? Then be intentional in your observation. Look carefully at what's going on around you. Be intentional in your operation, that is, with time, how your schedule, your clock and your calendar are used for God.
INTENTIONAL OBSERVATION
And then, finally, the last thing, is intentional occupation Be intentionally occupied.
Verse 18, he says be filled with the spirit. And, by the way, that's a command in the Greek, it's a command and it's in the present tense. So we would say it like this be filled with the spirit, command and keep on being filled with the spirit. It's not an event, it's an ongoing thing, it's an ongoing process. I am filled with the spirit, I'm being filled with the spirit. I am filled, I'm continuing to be filled with the spirit. By the way, that's why, when I mess up, what do I do? I 1 John 190.
You confess your sins. He's faithful and just Forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. That's about relationship, that's about dynamic, that's about the space that the Holy Spirit occupies in you. Paul is telling them. Be occupied with the spirit. He said and in contrast to what other people fill their lives with, he said don't be drunk with wine. That's his example. What that makes you behave, he's saying. The behavior that results. He says that's debauchery. He says instead, he said let me give you something better to be filled with. Be filled with the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God.
If you're going to live intentionally for God this year, you must be fully occupied with the spirit of God. Listen, I believe that this is the most important principle, for intentional living is being filled by the spirit of God. You see, apart from the occupation of the Holy Spirit in your life, the quest to live intentionally for God will end in just mechanics and going through motions that you'll struggle to maintain because you need power to fill you. You can only do so much in your own willpower. That's why Jesus said it's imperative that I go to the Father, because if I don't go to the Father, I can't send back the comforter, the paraclete, the Holy Spirit, because he will not just be with you I've been with you but he will be in you and will enable you and empower you. So how do you live intentionally in 2024? You must be filled with the Holy Spirit, and when you blow it and you will you first John 1.9 and get the relationship. That's not about being saved again, that's about having the relationship put back on the right footing. Your power and your best intentions to live for God, as well-intentioned as they may be, will not do it for you and can never do for you what only the Spirit of God can do in you.
Chicago is a long way from the ocean. I don't know if that's a great revelation to any of you, but it's hundreds of miles from the ocean, and back in the 1930s, the largest saltwater aquarium in the world opened up in Chicago. Now I know it isn't now, but it was in the 30s and the director of the aquarium decided that the ocean needed to come to Chicago. It's the Shed Aquarium. Some of you may have been to the Shed Aquarium before, and so here's what he did to bring the ocean to Chicago, the Chicago Aquarium. He sent down a train full of railway tanker cars all the way to Key West, florida, and there they siphoned up millions upon millions of gallons of ocean water for Chicago's Shed Aquarium. They brought it back, they set the aquarium up and in the 30s people were greeted in Chicago. People had never seen the ocean or never seen seahorses. They had seahorses and saw fish and baby sharks and there was even a 600-pound manatee put in there. They'd never seen these kinds of things. All because they'd brought the ocean and they'd filled the tank with this ocean water. Today, by the way, the Shed Aquarium still operates and it uses a blend of water, a salt blend called instant ocean, which is not uncommon in these settings anymore, which is mostly sodium chloride and the same kind of stuff that makes up your table salt.
But a lot of aquariums are actually set in environments that are very close to the ocean, like the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. It sets on the bay and because that particular bay is known for the cleanliness of the salt water around it they have pipes that literally pipe the water in to the Monterey Bay Aquarium there, right straight from the ocean. It's physically connected. The director said we're literally physically connected to the bay and we can fill our saltwater tanks directly from the Monterey Bay. They can bring in, they said, 2,000 gallons of water from the bay a minute to keep those salt tanks full.
Well, I read that this week and I thought you know what. That's the picture of the Christian life, this constant filling. This constant filling, tapped in, it doesn't have look. The Spirit of God isn't something that you have to import in. It's a constant filling by being capped in to an endless supply of power that Monterey Bay can take in. An endless supply of saltwater, 2,000 gallons a minute.
You and I can take in the endless supply, the Spirit of God, just by simply saying Lord Jesus, fill me, fill me, fill me. It's a command and it's an ongoing process. So today, fill me, lord, with your Holy Spirit. Lord, fill me this afternoon, lord, it's night. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, lord, as I lay down to go to bed. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. I prayed it last night. I woke up this morning. Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit, Fill me, fill me. The endless supply. God doesn't say look, I've used up all my tanker cars, I've got them going in so many different directions. There's a limited supply. No, no, he says you need it, I got it. Call on me. That's what Paul is telling them.
If you want to live intentionally this year, you can't do it in your own power. It'll be a train wreck for you, but you can do it in his. There'll be some bumps along the way. It may even be a train wreck here or there, but the Spirit of God's power is essential for you to live intentionally in 2024. And the good news is I don't know what it costs to take railroad cars and fill them up with saltwater and get them back to Chicago. I bet there was a lot of money in the 30s. It don't cost you a thing except surrender. That's all it costs, lord. I surrender, I surrender. You want to live intentionally for God. You want to live on purpose this year for God. Start there, lord. I surrender all that I am to all that you are to be, everything that you put me here to be.
Would you pray with me, father? We do want to live intentionally. We want to live on purpose. We want to live, father, in the power of the Holy Spirit. And I pray for any that are listening by livestream or television, listening on the radio, right here in this live audience, that have never surrendered their life to you, that today would be that day Again. This new year, they would surrender, they would give their life to you so that you can fill their life and reveal to them the purpose for which you created them. Thank you that you created us with purpose. Help us now to live and to walk in that purpose. Thank you, father, that the power is accessible. We ask for it. We ask you, father, to fill us up with your Holy Spirit and enable us to live for you in this new year. In Jesus' name Amen, would you stand with me for our time of invitation? I'll be here at the front and staff are going to be on the sides, and I want to invite you to slip out and balcony or ground floor from wherever you are and come, take one of us. Maybe today you say I need Christ, I need to receive Christ as my Savior. We'll take care of that. We'll help you with that.
You may want to come and pray around this altar. The altar is open. Come and use it, take advantage of it, and a great way to start the year is on a bent knee before God. Maybe this morning you say you know what I need. I know Christ is my Savior. What I need is a church family to belong to. This year begins. I want to do that. I want to take care of that. I want Ridgecrest to become my church home as we sing in just a moment. Would you slip out from where you are? You come this way. We're here right now. This is God time, business time with God. You'll miss it as we sing. You come on right now, come on.