Discovering Identity and Purpose Through God's Heart

"Well, that's because you start finding your purpose and your identity. And so that is the big discussion today is really identity. And, you know, what and how do we get on this earth? Like what put us on this earth? What is our purpose on this earth? Yes. What's our identity? What's it rooted in? Um, who am I supposed to be? What am I? You are a toy! Um, you know, is there a God in heaven that, you know, created me or was there just some big bang that or big bang that dropped me here? Where am I really rooted in? That's good, man. You know, is evolution a real thing or is, you know, all this kind of stuff goes through people's minds." [00:04:52]

"Then you have the people who, okay, they're seeking God or trying to seek out God. They're wanting to find that relationship with God, but they don't know where to start. So all they hear is, oh, well, you know, just go get in your prayer closet or, oh, I, you, or they'll hear the big one is you need to spend more time with God if you want to hear his voice. That's a big one. And they don't know what that means. Yeah, it's very cliche. Okay, so how do I spend time with him? Do I, like, that could be anything, worship, that could be prayer, that could be getting in your Bible. I mean, it's all the above, but, like, everybody seeks God in different ways, right?" [00:06:13]

"Everybody, you know, some people, they may say, I hear the voice of God through dreams. Some may say, I hear the voice of God spending time praying or, you know, if I'm feeling down and out, I love to get into the book of Proverbs and get encouragement, right? Some people are like, well, I read the Bible. Others are like, well, I don't, I'm trying to see God for the first time or hear his voice for the first time. Where do I start in the Bible? Yeah. That's a big thing. I feel like our generation, not to be, you know, rude in this, but it's a real thing." [00:07:21]

"We are more Bible illiterate in our generation than of the older generations. You know, the older generations, I feel like, you know, people were more driven to the Bible. I think a lot of the blame in that is, you know, they're trying to remove Bibles in schools now. So it's not just falling on our generation, despising reading the Bible and not wanting to. I think there's some of that, but I also think that, like, the system has also pushed this to the side or anything that has to do with God to the side, you know? Correct. Or they redefine who God is." [00:07:22]

"So people then don't know when they're told, oh, go home and read the Bible. Well, where do I start? They don't know where the story of Jesus is in the Bible. They don't know about the four Gospels. I would encourage people, if I was starting to read the Bible, start the four Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke. Thank you. John. If you could do that and just understand the life of Jesus, that will help you because then everything else in the Bible just kind of starts to make sense. But if you know the core apple, the nucleus, that being Jesus, that helps, you know, and then get into like the book of Acts, the apostles, how they carried out the testimony, the legacy of who Jesus was and his mission." [00:07:54]

"That's huge. And then if you just, like I said, need encouragement, Proverbs is a great book of the Bible and it has 31 chapters. So you could read a proverb a day for an entire month. there's, they say the original translation was the King James version. The thing about the, that that was the like older, more relevant, more like deeper translation. But the thing about that with the King James, you're going to deal with all those thousands, the ye's, the everything that sayeths. Like, yeah. And so it makes it hard to read." [00:08:10]

"But like the, the King James is a, uh, uh, more of a, a translation that if you got deeper into the word of God, like I would, you could compare like translations, like I do that, but like, I agree with you. If you're like confused by something while reading it in another translation, like say the King James, there might be a deeper meaning in King James version, but there's a more like English, like, Hey, you're feeling like I'm reading just modern English. It's easy to understand. And, and I don't have to deal with like the, the sayeths, the thou's, all that stuff." [00:09:14]

"It's like all these different things. But God will tell you, like, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Religion will tell you that, you know, this is how it's always been. This is, you know, we dress it up. We do all of this. And it's like, the Lord will always say, it's like, no, I paid for this. I took care of this. You know? It's a relationship. But like any relationship, okay, you might start with just like simple texting right off the bat, right? Right. But then it grows into, oh, these texts are getting longer now. Oh, now we're on the phone calls." [00:18:27]

"Yeah. Now we're actually going out and having dinner or whatever. It's a lot different now. It grows. So people will give you their heart when you make an attempt to understand their heart. That's where people also miss their identity is they don't understand the heart of God. So if you don't understand the heart of God, therefore you won't understand yourself. If you don't understand the heart of God or yourself, how can you understand the people around you and your purpose on this earth? That's so good." [00:18:58]

"Think about it. If I don't want to, if I understand the heart of God, I don't want to grieve God's heart. Well, if I don't want to grieve God's heart, I don't want to grieve his sons and his daughters who would be my brothers and sisters in Christ. When you understand the heart of God, you understand why he created you in the first place and your identity and why you are on this earth right now. And there's always a line that you say, why are we on this earth?" [00:19:53]

"Because God saw a problem that only you could fix. Not, not Matthew, not Anthony, you. We have our own problems on this earth that God put us on this earth to fix. There's things that God's called me to fix that are separate from Anthony, separate from you watching. That's good. There's things that God called him and I together to fix, like this podcast. That's why we're doing this. Okay. God called us together to bring this message to you today." [00:20:02]

"And that's the ultimate thing is like, we're on this earth to solve those things because God saw something that he needed your answer, your help, your talent, your, you know, ability to go get it done. And I think that's the important thing. But how can we do that if we don't first lay down our flesh, lay down our desires and follow God? And I've said this before that I feel like in life, a lot of people, they, they try so many things in life until they finally stumble upon God." [00:20:36]