WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE? | Dharius Daniels | Orange Conference 2019

Orange conference let's make some noise this morning, everybody. I'm excited to be here. Incredible honor to be here and have this opportunity to just contribute to the amazing things God's doing here and the incredible leadership this feels like home feels like family and I'm excited to contribute to all that God's doing over the course of these few days let me kind of leap into what's in my heart for our time together I want to inform some and remind others that your presence on this planet has purpose you're not the consequence of some cosmic coincidence you are not some relational accident your parents may have been surprised by your arrival but God was not you have been intentionally strategically and purposefully placed on this planet born when you need it to be born born where you need it to be born and born how you need it to be born if we eavesdrop on the conversation that God has with a gentleman named Jeremiah it corroborates my claim God tells Jeremiah before I formed you in the womb I knew you notice what he says before I form you your parents made you but I formed you deposited in you gifts talents skills that you would need for the very purpose for which you were created Jeremiah you've been built by design you've been crafted for your calling you've been wired for your work but Jeremiah not only did I form you I knew you it's personal I I knew you I knew you before you knew you nothing about you surprises me you're the only one that's surprised because I knew your strengths and I knew your weaknesses I knew you would be moody on Monday I knew that I knew you would be cranky without coffee I knew that I knew where you would be insecure I knew where you would be confident yet and still Jeremiah I picked you because I want you and the world needs you I'll form you I knew you and I ordained you and it's interesting because it seems to be a consistent pattern with God that he gets personal when it comes to formation even if we examine the creation narrative you will see that God uses words to create the environment he uses words to create the plant and the animal kingdom but when it came to the human species God did not you whose words God used God's hands and that activity of God getting his hands dirty getting personal with his creation is an example that is worth emulating for all of us who are partnering with God in ministry it's important for us to get this because not only do we have purpose but so does the next generation and those of us who are seated in this space today have said yes to the call the challenge the responsibility to allow God's hands to get on top of our hands for the Potter to place his hands above our hands and shaping and molding the next generation into who God has called and commissioned them to be so I have an announcement you are not youth workers you are not student pastors you are not youth directors if you're old school you're not Sunday School teachers whatever title you use you are not that and this is not just an issue of semantics semantics matter language frames the way we see things we can't accomplish something accurately if we don't understand it appropriately language does matter and we are not youth workers your purpose partners your purpose part of it at least is to help the next generation discover theirs this is why you get up early and you stay late this is why some of you changed diapers this is why you fight for their attention to keep them engaged and committed this is why you hear things from them at ages and stages that you did not anticipate and expect it's because you are purpose partners you have made the decision to get personal for the purpose of purpose to put your hands on those that God has his hands on to shape them and to mold them into who he's called them to be this is a room filled with world changers this is a room filled with destiny altars this is a room filled with a spiritual army that's made a decision we're going to fight for the next generation and as a parent I just want to say thank you as a pastor I just want to say thank you for being a purpose partner with the next generation purpose is the reason for the creation or the existence of a thing calling is God's invitation for your participation in the reason for the creation purpose then is an answer to a problem so when purpose is not fulfilled some problems exist in the earth that God wanted rectified this is world-changing stuff and someone in the room you're priscilla and aquila and you're taking this potential apologist named Apollo's under your care and right now you're just trying to get him to pay attention but one day he's going to be an ax for the faith and maybe God might use his brilliance and his penmanship - after an epistle that helps people understand the importance of transition like Hebrews some of you in the room are Lois and Eunice not naturally but spiritually because the dominant word that the New Testament uses to describe the church is the word family and in a culture and in some contexts where the norm and the trend is broken families and broken homes the church understanding itself as a spiritual family becomes essential and important because you become a supplement to that which they are not getting in their own homes and you're shaping and molding the next Timothy their mystic pens in this room who thirty-three years ago in kill Michael Mississippi population last census eight hundred and thirty people named after a cow that got loose and rampaged the city name Michael one police officer full-time a part-time police officer who's a police officer at night and a school bus driver during the day lives on the street my parents lived on 110 Thompson Street kill Michael Mississippi three nine seven four seven mystic pen thirty three years ago who wrestled every Sunday with a rambunctious rebellious group of boys trying to embed into them biblical character and principle the fruit of that commitment is standing on the stage before you today because she took purpose personally she understood that part of her purpose was to help me discover my and I want to argue that it is not just important for you to see yourselves that way it is important for people like me to see you that way well what what do I mean by that I mean people like me parentally and people like me passed orally and I had to perspective altering experiences in both of those categories that really increased my appreciation for you and gave me a revelation of your necessity that the first of which was passed orally I've got to to parentally I've got to amazing incredible boys if anybody knows how to make them keep their room clean holla at your boy after this session I need some help with that but I've got two incredible boys and a few years ago my oldest had this crisis of faith and so he's wired analytically kind of like me and this crisis of faith was very unsettling for me as a parent it made me insecure I was wrestling with regret and I did not understand how to overcome this Rivera gretna and I kept revisiting seasons of his life maybe that I mismanaged that I could not revise but I did the devotionals and the home devotionals and praying over meals and disciple and doing things to the best of my ability and I I couldn't understand how this happened to my kid he said it's early teens what's what's happening and every year had him go to this camp for pastors kids in one year he was at this camp and this speaker spoke rich Wilkerson jr. who spoke in RuPt my son's life and afterwards walks up to rich and begins to tell rich some of his issues and rich takes time personally to engage my son to talk through these issues he didn't see my son as an interruption he saw him as an appointment that God didn't put on his calendar see there are some appointments we make we know about those and there are some appointments that God makes and he keeps those to himself and some of great Jesus's greatest miracles would be perceived by people as interruptions rich took it personally and at the time didn't even know that was my son when I text him to thank him he told me I didn't even know that was your son gave my son his phone number completely revolutionized his life and I begin to think as I heard him say to me the stuff rich said to him that I've been saying the head it's like so this is new to you huh I've been saying this your whole life and I learned that in different seasons different voices have different values every kid needs a rich every kid needs someone who will not see them as an interruption but who is willing to see them as an appointment and who is willing to meet them where they are and in the words of that old African proverb embrace the axiom that it takes a village both naturally and spiritually to raise a child thank you for being rich some of you maybe you hadn't heard thank you all year but I want to say thank you for being rich and what's interesting for me as I saw the fruit of riches work immediately and that won't be the case for most of you in ministry mystic pen has no idea how she impacted my life but I just want to let you know some plants some water God gives the increase thank you for being rich and then I had another experience which is more recent pastoral e that really rocked me there are different pastoral models and pastors seed themselves and persons who have gone before them and for me I've been been passionate for most of my pastor it about communication I've I've lived on the words of people who are no longer living Spurgeon is no longer living but I live on his words and moody is no longer living but I live on his words and Wesley is no longer living but I live on his words and dr. King is no longer living but I live on his words and so I wanted to be the kind of pastor that leaves a legacy that's more than buildings for people to sit in I wanted to leave words that people live by and and I've been passionate about improving communication and I'm sensitive about my communication and I'm intentional about communication and one day I'm hanging out after service greeting people digging the scene with the past early I'm just chilling and all of a sudden this teenager runs up to me and she says pastor Darius I say yes she say uh my grandmother made me come to church because she said I've been acting up at school and I need to come to church and listen to you so I could behave better I said okay waiting on her to compliment me on the communication waiting on her to say I'm a teenager and I understood everything you were saying and I'm about to go change my entire life off of this life transformative message I just heard from you I said okay I say how was it she said I didn't understand anything you were saying I'm still bothered by that pray for me and I'm looking at a person who has purpose that has been created by her creator to make a contribution to this world that only she could make and the place that's supposed to be a corporate uh sure that escorts her into an understanding of what that is all about is a place where she comes and is confused and I said there's a disconnect thank God for people like riches people like you who help fill that gap I realize if there's a generational gap between me and the teenagers in the church this there's a good chance that there's a gap between other leaders and teenagers in this church and these epiphanies cause me as a pastor to realize that I needed to be more intentional about partnering with God for the next generation and I know this is a word that we don't use as frequently and for a number of reasons and I'm okay with that but in this context I think you'll get the gist of what I'm saying and I had to test orally repent I had to have a change of mind that produced a change of direction and make a decision that I needed to as a senior leader be more intentional about partnering with the purpose partners in shaping and molding the next generation and so our pastoral Lokhande went through three steps that I want to share with you before I take my seat today and I want to share these three steps for the people in the room who you're sitting out here right now but you sit where I sit maybe you're making decisions maybe you're a pastor maybe you're on the board I want to these three three things for you and I also want to share these three things for the for the sake of purpose partners who want to share this with people like me but for whatever reason you can't the first step I had to go through was a step called examination examination I had to examine whether my proclaimed pastoral values were actual priorities do you know it's possible for there to be dissonance between proclaimed values and actual priorities that it is possible to say that I probe that I value my family and that not be an actual priority that I value my health and that not be an actual priority well pastorally I cared about the next generation I valued them but I saw in our work and in the way that I let our church it was a proclaim value but it wasn't an actual priority it's one thing to say I care it's another thing to show that I care and after this time of personal examination I moved to step two which is investigation I had to make a decision if this matter to me I needed to put my eyes on it and so we started having focus groups and conversations with purpose partners with those who are actually engaging in ministry I personally sat down and had meetings and listening sessions and one of the things that I discovered is that our purpose partners were not being properly supported by a church that claimed to care about the next generation I think church is the only place where you have permission to come to conclusions without asking questions if you were to ask me before conversations how we were doing in supporting and resourcing I would have told you fantastic and phenomenal but I actually asked the people who were doing the work and they were not properly resourced and not properly supported and it's dangerous in a context like mine specifically with one of my campuses I want to be very frank and honest it is not in the inner city I got friends in the heart of Philadelphia who are doing that kind of work in the heart of Trenton but one of our campuses is very close to the inner city and we draw a bit from that is right in the middle of Princeton and Trenton and we get kind of a reflection of both of those demographics and it was this investigation was startling for me because specifically in the inner city you see the immediate implications of getting this wrong well you don't get the relationship part right it shows up in an increase in gang participation gangs aren't about crying about community it's about relationship it's about safety and security that I'm not getting from my natural or my spiritual family and the danger for those who may be serving context that aren't like mine is that it's like a frog that's boiling in hot water and don't know it examination investigation and then last but not least I had to make some investments I had to make an investment with organizational want organizational energy meaning that we have to make a decision that we could not delegate the care of the next generation to one department that as an organization we needed to be willing to invest energy and take the brightest minds that were a part of our community and say how can we all contribute to advancing what God wants to do in this next generation and so I had people who are in worship departments and people who are in discipleship departments and lay people let's all get together and less invest the energy of our organization into this next generation because this isn't a next-gen departments responsibility this is the church's responsibility but finally we didn't just invest organizational energy we invested organizational resources first of all we were willing to invest more money and my pastor teaches us that if you want that if it matters to you you will sacrifice for it we did not just financial resources but human resources I took one of my youngest and best leaders from pastoring and leading a campus and asked him would he take up the responsibility of leading my next generation I took one of my best leaders and put it put him over my greatest opportunity because it is an investment that has eternal implications not just for individuals before the earth may our heart be stirred to see what God wants to do with us and through us in preparing this next generation to walk into what is prepared for them let's pray God thank you for the privilege and the opportunity that you've given us to partner with you in shaping and molding a next generation and this is our prayer made the people's hands never replace the Potters hands and shaping and molding this next generation to who you've caught them to be in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Orange Leaders

Views: 63,300

Rating: 4.9092784 out of 5

Keywords: thinkorange, think orange, orange leaders, lead small, parent cue, student curriculum, kids curriculum, preschool curriculum, small group leader, reggie joiner, rethink group, dharius daniels, orange conference, purpose of life, purpose, what is my purpose, what is my purpose in life, find your purpose, life purpose, change church, how to find your purpose, find your life purpose, how to find your true purpose in life, how to find life purpose

Id: yJzYohjWaeo

Length: 27min 1sec (1621 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 20 2019