How to Discover What You Were Made To Do | Young Adults

I have the honor of serving as the Director for Young Adults at Crossroads Church. Now, two quick things off rip. I did not lose a bet. I'm not going through a midlife crisis. I'm good. I'm just doing a little switch-up. Sometimes sometimes you just need a little switch-up. So bleach the hair. It was either by a Tesla, or bleach. So I chose the cheaper option. And I had it for a couple weeks, and I was like, this is actually dope. So I'm keeping it. And if you like it, great. If you don't, I don't care. That's where I'm at with that. Yeah. And if you're like, hey, has anyone told you you look like eminent? Yes. They have. So you're not the first one to tell me that. Secondly, I'm feeling a little like raspy tonight. I just been a little under the weather. I got sick. Sonatino's kids at home. It was inevitable. It got to me. So I've got some water up here in our cool color-changing young adults' cups available exclusively, collective night in the atrium. And so just bear with me. It's probably going to get progressively worse as we go throughout the night. If I'm yelling at you, it's because I love you, not because I'm mad at you. And we're just going to get through it together. So here we go. Some of you know, my family and I moved to Cincinnati about a year and a half ago. So we're still like kind of new to the city. We're still figuring it out. We're getting the lay of the land. We're exploring. We're doing all the things. But moving to a new place means everyone that you come into contact with is new. So I've been meeting a lot of new people over the last year and a half, which has been cool. But also I just like kind of forgot what being the new guy was like. And something I picked up on, maybe you've picked up on this as well, is that every time you meet a new person and you share your name and they share their name, you know what the next question is about like 99.9% of the time. After I get your name and you get my name, the next question is, so what do you do? Every time the next question is, so what is it that you do? And I think, you know, we can learn a lot about a person by their place of employment, their occupation. But I think that question is really important, not just because we care about where people get their paycheck from. I think that question is really, really important because every single one of us would acknowledge and believe that what we do matters. Like what we spend our time doing really matters. I want to take you back to 17-year-old me. I was living in Raleigh, North Carolina, that's where I'm from. And I remember one day, so vividly as a senior in high school, 17 years old, I hear

my mom coming down the stairs, making her way down the hallway to come into my room. Now I love my mom to death. She's amazing and incredible mom, but she's always the one that's asking the hard questions. And she comes around the corner into my room and she goes, "Son, it's time to start applying for college." And that is the moment right there where I think my childhood died and ended. It was that moment right there where I was just like, "Oh, it's over." It was all fun and games until mom came downstairs and said, "It's time to start applying for college because my mind started racing." "Oh, okay. Well, college is a lot of different colleges, okay, college." And then college means, like, I take a major. It's like, "Oh, man, there's a lot of majors I could take, okay." Well, then major, it would mean like a degree and then it would mean like, "I got to get a big boy job." And that could take me to who knows where. It could take me to any place. It could take me to any state. It could take me all over the world. And then that would be, and then I'd talk in salaries and negotiations and bills and, like, responsibility. I just started spiraling. And I got really anxious, really fast because up to 17 years of my life had been lived, spent thinking about hanging out with my friends and playing sports. And that was as far as I had gotten. And so when mom came down to ask me that, or not even a question, just to make that statement, I lost it because I had genuinely never thought about what I was going I had genuinely never thought about it. I was just having a good time. And then it felt like I was in a rush to make a really important decision that would change the trajectory of my entire life. And I was mortified that I was going to screw it up somehow. I was terrified I was going to pick the wrong thing. And actually, the thing that I was the most anxious about was choosing something to do that didn't matter. That's what I was worried about. Like, what if I end up spending all my time doing something that doesn't matter?

I need you to hear me tonight. God has made you to do something that matters. God has made you to do something that matters. And we're going to spend the rest of our time tonight talking about how to find out what God made you, like individually you, to do. And then the next part is you go do it. How do you discover what you were made to do and then get out there and do the thing before work became known in our culture just around like nine to fives, paychecks, clock in, clock out. Before all of that, it was simply just God's original design for humanity. The first chapter of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1, says this, "Then God said, let us make human beings in our image to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground. So God created human beings in his image. In the image of God, he created the male and female. He created them. And then God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and govern it, reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground." So humans were made in God's image, and they were made to do the things that God does. Made in God's image to do the things that God does. We see all throughout the creation story

that God is a God who works, and God made us to work. I think a lot of people actually get this twisted. I think a lot of people, young adults, adults altogether included, think that we were actually created, not just to work, but we just live-- excuse me, we just work so that we can just live the rest of our lives. Like, this is the thing I got to do, and I just got to power through that thing so that I can just get to all the good parts of life. Like spending time with my family, going on vacation, doing the other things that I want to do. I just kind of work so that I can live the rest of my life. In fact, the Bible teaches the exact opposite. The book of Genesis seems to teach us that humans actually live to work. We live to work. This is why AI might be able to take your job. But AI will never be able to take your purpose, because your purpose is attached to the responsibility that God has given you to work. That's pretty cool. Human beings are made in God's image, which means we have identity from God. And human beings also receive responsibility from God. And that's our work. So what does that mean? Well, the Hebrew word that is used for image of God in these verses right here is the word selem, selem. And selem means shadow, image, or idol.

In the ancient Near East, a selem was like a tiny little statue or figure that a king would actually take and place in a specific area or province, and the selem was there to symbolize and reflect the king's authority, And it's really neat to think that in the same exact way, you and I are solemn. We are tiny, visible representations of God, the Creator, the King's authority as he rules and reigns here on earth. And he's given us the responsibility to rule and reign so that we reflect his image to the rest of the world. The next chapter, Genesis 2, just doubles down on the human beings made to work idea in verse 15 where it says, "The Lord God took the man. He put him in the garden of Eden to do two things, to work it and to take care of it." So work exists as a part of God's original design before the fall of man where sin enters the world and corrupts and distorts everything. That happens in chapter three. So the first two chapters of the Bible, we get a lot of theology and teaching about work as a good thing, not a corrupted thing yet. It's just a good original design thing from God. His original plan is that you and I were creating things. We were building things, we were taking care of things, we were contributing to God's creation. And so tonight when we talk about work,

we are not just talking about your place of employment. We are not just talking about a career path here, we are talking about every single way that you and I use our lives to cultivate, create and steward the things that God has entrusted to each of us. And for some of us, those are relationships that we have with people. For all of us, we have different gifts, abilities, skills, there's places that we go where we have authority. There's different resources that have been assigned to and given to each of us. We each carry a different level of responsibility in different areas of life. But it's all the same thing in the end. The late Tim Keller, a famous theologian, writer, pastor, defined work this way. He said work is rearranging the raw material of God's creation in such a way that it helps the world in general and people in particular thrive and flourish. So you and I were made to exist with God. He created us in his image with responsibility. And now you and I are actually partners with him participating in his work, which means you are co-workers with the creator of the universe. You may have some crazy co-workers, somebody who got some crazy co-worker stories. How insane is it to actually think that you are co-working with God Almighty? All of this tells us that the way that you answer

the question, what was I made to do is really, really important when you meet somebody and they go, so what do you do? The way you answer that question is very, very important, but there's still a problem. I think it leads to a follow-up question, which is the more personal question, like where do I fit into this work? Where does my story fit into God's story? There's a space between understanding conceptually that human beings were created to work and then actually knowing what that means for my life and my future and my decisions and my career. I can believe that I was made to partner with God and still have no idea what to do next in response to that. That's what we're gonna spend the rest of the time talking about tonight, because I think the questions that we really want the answer to are, well, how do I find out what my gifts and skills are? Do I even have any of those? What if I hate my job? What if I hate my job? And it's unfulfilling and I think about quitting all the time. Then what? What is my unique contribution to the world? What if what I'm currently doing feels purposeless and meaningless? Is it possible for me to actually pick the wrong path in life? How do I recognize God's direction? Like all of those questions there

can actually all get lumped into it. I remember growing up, this concept just seemed so foreign to me. And I think that's one of the reasons I started spiraling when my mom came down and asked me or told me, hey, it's time to start applying for colleges because I began to realize I'm so confused about all this. I just don't get any of it. And because I didn't get it, I didn't wanna address it and deal with it because I just remember growing up, there was just all these weird, elusive, churchy words that just got thrown around about work and purpose. And I remember people just coming up to me being like, Jordan, what do you think you're calling in life is? It was like, what are you even talking about? I don't even know what that means. That sounds really spiritual. But is that a moment where I'm just gonna have a dream or God's gonna speak really directly to me one time and show up in my room? I don't know what any of that means. I heard crazy stories where it felt like people just had wild clarity about what they were supposed to, I've never had anything like that before. And so that felt mysterious to me. And then people would say things like, well, my vocation is this and this. And I was like, vocation. That sounds kind of like elitist.

No one's ever talked to me about having a vocation. Is that like a level up from a career? I'm just not exactly sure. You get around church people, they talk about ministry. We're doing ministry. I was like, ooh, ministry. Is that like working at a church and being a pastor? Is that what ministry is? And then my grandma, I love her to death. Anyone got a little crazy grandma out there? A little crazy, just a little crazy, just a little cuckoo. That's my grandma, I love her so much. And she's super spiritual. She loves Jesus, but she got a little crazy too. I remember, you know, being at Thanksgiving, dinner. She'd come over and hang out. She'd say, Jordan, what do you think God's assignment for your life is right now? And I was like, grandma, I don't know. I just want to eat dinner. Can we talk about this some other time? It's weird. I don't know what any of it means. Stop bugging me about this. She would tell me what she thinks it is, right? You know, I was like, stop. It was all strange. It was just all mysterious. Christians would just say things like, God's got a plan for your life.

God's got a purpose for you. He's made you to do amazing, incredible things. And I was like, all that just sounds awesome. It all sounds so nice and great. It reminded me of a verse, actually. A verse from the Bible, whether you're like a church Bible person or not, you've probably heard this verse before. It's Ephesians 2, 10. You've probably seen it in Hobby Lobby. You've probably seen it on somebody's hand towels, you know, when you go to their house or on a big wall decalor or something like that. And it says, we are God's masterpiece. And He's created us new in Jesus so that we can do the good things He planned for us long to go. And I'm like, that's amazing. Man, that's so cool. I'm God's master. Whoa. And then the more I thought about it, and especially towards the end, I focus on the end a little bit. And I'm like, hold up, there's only one problem. People have been telling me about God's purpose and all this stuff for my life forever. I just got one question. Why has no one ever helped me figure out what it is though? If it's so great and the plans are so good,

why hasn't there been one person who said, hey, you want to help me figure out what God's made you to do? That would have been great. I would have really appreciated that. And so tonight, I would be willing to bet we have some people in the room, and that's how you feel. That's how you feel. I've heard about all this stuff. You know, it sounds all great, but right now I'm working a job and it feels completely meaningless. And I'm wondering, is there something out there that's more fulfilling? Maybe we have some people in here tonight who are like, I don't even know if I believe any of this. I'm not even sure it matters at the end of the day. What happens? Does it really matter at the end? We're all just gonna die. Does it even matter? Does anything even have purpose or value? You might be there. but I just don't even know where to start to figure out what I would be uniquely made to do. I don't even know where the starting line is for that race. Maybe some of you, you're pursuing a degree right now. You might even be right there towards the end,

but if you're really honest, it's the degree that your parents wanted you to get and your heart's not in it. You're not excited about it. And you actually wish that you would have maybe taken a different path. A lot of different types of people who may be in the room tonight, and here's what I'm gonna do my best with over the next few minutes. To give you three questions to consider, and I think that these three questions and the way that you answer them, have the ability to help you begin to discover. What the specific contribution is that you bring to the world through the grace of God. And man, I just wish someone would have talked to me about this when I was a little bit younger, 'cause I think it would have helped out a lot. So here's the first one. What do you love? What do you love? Like, what are you passionate about? What desires do you have? I just want you to take a second, and I want you to think about the things in life that bring you true joy. Not like a fleeting moment of happiness, but things that bring you true joy and fulfillment. Think about maybe things you've done in the past. Think man, when I did that thing,

it just put gas in the tank. When I did that thing, it felt like I was coming to life. It felt easy, it felt smooth, it felt nice, like what are the things that give you energy and life? For some of you, it's cooking, it's dancing. It's connecting people to other people. It's making people laugh. It's serving people who are in need. It's building things. It's hiking or painting or problem solving or coaching. Like there's a thing, and you know, when you wake up in the morning and that thing's on the agenda for the day, you're excited to get out of bed. What is that thing? Maybe it could be a list of a few different things. You don't gotta narrow it down to just one, but what is the thing that you love? I found out pretty early on actually in life that I just loved working with the next generation. I just always loved the idea of helping teach and coach and guide. Not necessarily always being the smartest person in the room, but just being a person who was a few steps ahead that could share from personal experiences and wisdom to just train up and bring up young people under my wing and to help be a guide for them and like, I just love that. And I think a big part of the reason I love that

is because I was lucky enough to have a few people in my life who did that for me when I was a teenager and when I was a young adult. And I just always felt this tug in my heart to do for others what those people did for me. It's working with the next generation. There's just something about it that just shoots adrenaline into my soul. The second question is, what are you good at? You could also add, what are you bad at? For a little extra clarity. A few months ago, I had an opportunity to go on a little offsite team building thing with some staff people at Crossroads and we went to this welding experience. We got these welders in the house. Oh, you are gonna love this story, my friend. And you know, I'm like, this is a new thing. I've never done this before. I'm pretty much, you know, it's like a group of 12 of us, something like that. We're all excited, let's go. We're just taking it all in. They're doing the safety instruction, all the good stuff and then the instructor's like, all right, so you can make a bracelet. And I was like, blame. You can make a cross. And I was like, eh, it just looks too easy. I'm looking for a little bit of a challenge.

You guys, you can make a fire poker. And I was like, that's kind of cool. I just don't have a fireplace. So that one's out. And then he goes, or, and he goes, and I wouldn't recommend trying this one. You could make an owl that is perched up onto a tree. And he holds this up. You see this? Maybe? A little bit? I'll show you afterwards. And owl that's perched up onto a tree. And I said, that's it. [BLANK_AUDIO] Or a little challenge come on how hard could it be you know He's buying structure. He's gonna walk me through all the steps of the property of the whole deal. And so we start the thing He's teaching us all you're throwing the thing in the fire. You're pulling it out You know you're just doing all the stuff. I'm in it In it I'm doing the thing and you just don't realize how much time has gone by when you're when you're welding and so it's like an Hour goes by two hours go by three hours go by and I start to notice Everyone open in the group who picked you know the bracelet and the crop and all that stuff. They're all finished And they're all looking at all these amazing things we made and I'm Trying you know to trust the process for what my guide is telling me to do But I'm not seeing the vision, you know like I'm holding the thing. I don't know if we're gonna get there and The guy leading the the group eventually they start making jokes like oh well Jordan will come back and get you after lunch You know hope you you figure out the owl thing and eventually gets to the point where you know my boss pulls me aside And he goes hey, you need to ask him how much longer you have on the owl and I was like I'm pretty sure I just got like one or two more steps and I call my guide over and I'm like hey, man

Listen like it's kind of embarrassing. I'm not done with the owl yet. How much more time we got and he goes He probably got three or four hours left. I'm like I've been here for five hours already Everyone's been done for at least Three hours, so make this make sense man. Why why did you tell me that we should do the owl thing? And I walked out of there that day with this this is what I made After five hours this would be five hours to me an ice cream scoop is what it turned into And I went back to the instructor. I was like dude. I can't I don't have time to finish it like I have to leave And he's like maybe you could come back to mine. I was like no Say give me that owl though. I worked hard for this thing. I'm taking that owl and He hands me one of the finished owls and he goes man. I'm sorry about you know your trouble today, and he goes I think it's pretty obvious that being a welder is not in your future That took the out It's a stupid story To illustrate the point which is as you start doing things Sometimes you figure out what you're good at a lot of times you figure out what you're not good at and it takes a lot of Figuring out what you're not good at to really get to the gold where you discover the things you are good at And I would actually be willing to bet that many of us are struggling to figure out What we're really gifted in because we just don't want to try anything if we're scared. We're not gonna be good at it We don't want to try if we're not gonna be the best I'm not interested. I'm gonna be embarrassed. I'm gonna look back out of it Just make the owl man. Just go for it. Just do it Over time as you begin to try more things you start to narrow in and you start to realize well I'm kind of onto something over here There will be people that start to call out and you hey have you ever noticed you're actually really gifted in this thing over here It looks like when you do that it just comes naturally to you People start to call it out You really you really inherently talented at that thing some people in the room are amazing with music and the arts There's people in here that are incredible with tech with managing spreadsheets with innovating and solving complex problems in really unique ways There's people who are gifted with engineering and design and marketing and starting businesses and caring for people in crisis There's all types of unique gifts and skills in this space and early in college I had someone who called out a gift in me that I didn't even see in me

and they said hey Jordan I think you actually might have the gift of teaching and I was like well I don't really know if I fully Believe that but if you see it in me It's at least got me curious that maybe I'll give it a shot And so I began to just look for opportunities to teach just like these tiny little youth groups or little Bible studies or things like that and the first about 50 times I did a message it was horrible Really bad and it's still not even the best but I've progressed quite a bit over the last 10 years of teaching Because over time through rep after rep after rep you start refining The thing that had natural talent and gifting on it, but now it's got some polish on You're not just discovering the gift you're beginning the process of developing the gift and I actually think that there are many people in this room right now who have a limiting belief and And you genuinely believe that God has not made you. And what I need you to hear from me tonight is that I'm not saying that every person in this room is a secret child prodigy at something. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that over time, as you just do more stuff, you will begin to discover the gifts, skills, abilities. You'll begin to uncover them, the things that God has uniquely gifted to you, and then you get to develop them. You get to develop those gifts to help other people and to reflect God to the world. Lastly, question three is what does the world need? What does the world need? Is there anything that you look at in society and you just go, somebody's got to do something about that. Like, I look at the news, I look at the brokenness, I look at the hurt, I just look at all of it. And do you ever just wonder, do you ever think to yourself, like, what is missing from all of this? What areas am I looking at that clearly need to be restored and redeemed? Are there any opportunities that are in front of you right now where God might just be nudging you and just going, like, hey, if you're waiting on somebody else to step in and do that thing, it's time to stop waiting. It's time for you to help usher in human flourishing through this specific area. For me, I learned over time that there's a lot of things that the next generation desperately needs. I mean, they need hope and they need family and I can listen off all types of things, but really at the end of the day, I just had to get an artist and go, if it's just one thing, then I can help give them what is the most important thing and that's the message of hope that is found in Jesus.

And so I just said, okay, well, I think part of my unique responsibility to serve and guide the next generation and to teach them specifically about the hope of Jesus. I start to piece some of those things together and as you begin to answer some of these questions, you will have clues that start to be revealed about what it is that God has uniquely made you to do. Because what will likely happen, maybe right now, maybe later today, maybe over the next few weeks or months as you go through this process, you will see points of convergence. You'll see the circles start to overlap with one another and you will begin to find your wheelhouse. These questions are not designed to pigeonhole you into one career path for the rest of your life. These questions and their answers are meant to give you clarity about what God has made you to do because there's 20 different jobs that I could do and still be in my wheelhouse. There's a bunch of different career paths that I could pick and still be operating in what I believe is my unique assignment, Nana, from God. I talked to like three young adults this week, met up for coffee, it was funny. I didn't even tell them that I was talking about this until after our conversation just naturally went here. But with three different young adults, I had a conversation that was like, man, do you think that we're just putting way too much pressure on our nine to fives to give us fulfillment? Do you think that we're just putting way too much pressure on our careers to give us fulfillment? And then the danger is that when we feel unfulfilled, we'll immediately start going, oh man, the grass looks greener over there. Maybe I should just jump ship and head over to this job over there. Maybe that will solve the problem. I think there actually are some young adults in this room and maybe you do need a different job if I'm being honest. It's sucking the life out of you. You don't like who you're becoming. Maybe some of you are finding out, wait, the work that I'm in is maybe actually almost unethical. I don't even know if I agree with what my company's doing. Okay, maybe some of you, it's time to get a different job. But I actually think that for the majority of us, a different job is not going to solve your problem. A different job isn't just going to automatically lead to a more fulfilling life. Most of us just need to stop blaming our job. Some of you, you're going to get paid to do the thing that you believe God has made you and put you on this earth to do. And you have hit the lot of my friend. You're going to get paid for operating, fully into getting, when you walk into work. Many of us, we're going to work a job.

You're going to work a job. You're going to clock in. You're going to clock out. You're going to do good work. And it might not be the most fulfilling thing of all time, but you're going to work faithfully at that job and you are going to find other outlets. To explore and participate in the redemptive work that God has made you specifically for. And that's okay. Because at different stages in our lives, God gives us different responsibilities and puts us in different positions, which is why Colossians 3 says work willingly at whatever you do. Whatever you do, you could be faithful in it and you can work at it because you got to remember the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward and the master that you are serving is Christ. So what's like the end game? Like what's the end goal for all of this? What's the deal? What am I supposed to do? You know, like what's the point? Like why do I really need to discover what I'm made to do and then do it? Second Corinthians chapter 5, Paul's been talking to this group of people about Jesus. He's been talking about the new life that these people have now experienced now that they have a relationship with Jesus. He's talking about the perks, the benefits, the purpose filled life that they're now living. And then he says this in verse 18, and all of this is a gift from God who brought us back to himself through Jesus Christ. God has given us the task of reconciling, that means restoring people to him. For God was in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation, which means we're Christ's ambassadors. And God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Jesus Christ when we plead. Come back to God. The point of our work is that work points people to God. That's the point of your work. Your work points people to God. You have the exact same mission and assignment that Jesus himself had, which is to bring reconciliation, redemption, and restoration into the areas and provinces that you have been given authority.

It is to take your responsibility to discover the unique gifts that God has given to you and then to do those things. We need you to discover that. The world needs you to discover that because without it, we're missing something really valuable. You're a one of one, you're an original. No one else is here to do the thing that you have been uniquely called and assigned by God to do. It's just you. So we need you to discover it. We need you to do it. That's where the intersection of your work and God's work happens. It's where the intersection of your story and God's story happens. We need you to discover it and do it because when that happens, the Scripture says people come back to God. We need you operating in your gifting because it's going to bring people to God. We need you to do that work because you're an ambassador, you're a visible representation of an invisible being. And the Scripture actually says you will lead people into a new freedom to then themselves be restored to God and then be an ambassador for Him. So to wrap up, we wanna give you a little bit of space to sit and to process and to actually just receive from God. And so in just a moment, I'm gonna pray and the band's just gonna play some music. They're not even gonna sing. And we just wanna give you a little bit of time, right, where you are, to sit and to respond to these three questions. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to get out your phone or maybe some of you actually have notebooks like pen and paper, that's fine too. But if you don't, I want you to get out your phone, open the notes tab, whatever it is. And I just want you to write these three questions down. I don't want you to feel the pressure to rush this

and have it figured out before this moment ends. That's just not reasonable for all of us. But I just want you to begin the journal and allow God to speak to you and then put pen to paper through that. So question one is, what do you love? I want you to think about your passions and your desires. It's not an accident that you're drawn to those things. So what have you done in the past that made you come alive? Like just think for a second, like if money wasn't even an option, you're gonna have to think about it. And you're just like, this is the thing that I would do if I could just do that thing. I want you to think about what that is. Push beyond the surface level stuff. Question two is, what are you good at? What are you good at? You don't even feel arrogant or proud or prideful for putting something down and being like, yeah, I actually think I'm good at that. Nothing wrong with that. I think sometimes we're scared to admit I'm good. I'm good at it. You can do that. If you don't know what you're good at, something you could actually do during this time is just text three people that are close to you and just ask them. All right, I'm gonna pray for us.

And then we'll give you some time. God, I thank you. God, I thank you that you would be so good that you would wanna work with us, that you would wanna partner with us. And God, I pray over this room right now, that you would speak so tenderly and kindly, so clearly to each individual about who you've made them to be, about how you've uniquely wired them even before they ever took their first breath. Jesus, speak to them. Awaken and unlock new things in them. Draw them to yourself. God, we're open. We're ready to hear from you. To receive the gifts and the amazing plans that you have for us. So help us now. Amen. (gentle music)