This message is Part 4 in the message series “AWAKENING” by Pastor Chuck Bernal. In this message titled, “Awakening To Life”, Pastor Chuck says that all of us will live our lives with "If Only" regrets or with "What If?" dreams. God has a big dream for each one of us and when we discover it and pursue it, we will have the best life possible. This message was delivered at LifePointe Church in Crowley, TX on Sunday, May 14, 2017.

1. Awakening To Life (This Is What I Was Made For)
Pastor Chuck Bernal – May 14, 2017
What is your “IF”? This question will determine the trajectory of
your life. Every dream begins with the two word question,
“WHAT IF?” What if I started to work out? What if I went back
to college? What if we started a family? What if I changed
careers? What if I told my best friend about Jesus? What if I
forgave the person who has hurt me the most? What if I really
dedicated my life to God? So all that stands between you and your
current circumstances and your wildest dreams is one little word,
“IF”. One little “IF” can change everything. One little “IF” can
change anything. One little “IF” can change YOU!
TWO WAYS YOU CAN LIVE LIFE – WITH “IF ONLY” REGRETS
OR “WHAT IF” DREAMS
______________________________________________________________
Give Pharaoh of Egypt the title King Bombast, the man who
missed his moment!”
(Jeremiah 46:17 - NEB)
They will say, “Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is a loudmouth who
missed his opportunity!”
(Jeremiah 46:17)
Because he missed his “what if” dreams, he took his “if only”
regrets to the grave.

2. ______________________________________________________________
. . . who knows whether you have attained royalty for such a time
as this
and for this very purpose? (Esther 4:14 – Amp)
______________________________________________________________
David served God’s purpose in his own generation . . . (Acts 13:36
– CEB)
______________________________________________________________
Make the very most of your time on earth, recognizing and taking
advantage
of each and every opportunity . . . (Ephesians 5:16 – Amp)
Live life, then, with a due sense of responsibility, not as men who
do not know the meaning and purpose of life but as those who do.
Make the best use of your time, despite all the difficulties of
these days. Don’t be vague but firmly grasp what you know to be
the will of God.
(Ephesians 5:16-17 – Ph)
At the end of your life, your greatest regret won’t be the things
you did but wish you hadn’t. Your greatest regret will be the
things you didn’t do but wish you had. It’s the WHAT IF dreams
that we never acted on that turn into IF ONLY regrets. It’s the
sins of omission that grieve the heart of our heavenly Father most
– because no one knows our God-given potential like the God who
gave it to us in the first place. Potential is God’s gift to us.
Making the most of it is our gift back to God. (Mark Batterson)
LIFE’S IMPORTANT QUESTIONS
Why was I ever born? (Jeremiah 20:18 – LB)

3. The question of _______________________________________ - Why
am I here?
The question of _____________________________________ - Do I
really matter?
The question of ____________________________________- What is my
purpose?
YOUR BEST LIFE EVER STARTS WITH GOD
The Lord has made everything for his own purposes . . .
(Proverbs 16:4 – LB)
God made me to ________________________________________ me.
EXISTENCE
Long before He laid down earth’s foundations, God had us in mind,
and He settled on us as the focus of HIS LOVE, to be made whole
and holy by HIS LOVE. (Ephesians 1:14 - Msg)
God made me to ______________________________________ me.
SIGNIFICANCE
I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life
than they ever dreamed of.
(John 10:10 - Msg)
God made me to ________________________________________ me.
INTENTION
Give yourselves completely to God - every part of you . . . you want
to be tools in the hands of God,
to be used for his good purposes. (Romans 6:13 - LB)
My life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me
by the Lord Jesus - the work of telling others the good news about
God's wonderful kindness and love. (Acts 20:24 - NLT)

4. Only those who give away their lives for my sake and for the sake of
the good news will ever know what it means to really live. (Mark
8:35 - LB)
What are you living for? Your answer will determine the direction
of your life. If your purpose is wrong, your direction will be wrong.
If your purpose is vague or fuzzy, your direction will be fuzzy. If
you don’t know your purpose, you’ll just be swept along by the
currents of our age, doing what seems to bring you happiness. It is
crucial that you be clear and correct in answering the question,
“What are you living for?” Faith is reimagining our future through
the frame of God’s promises. This is what turns “WHAT IF” into
“WHAT IS”. If you give the Lord complete control of your life, he
will write HIS-story through you - a story beyond your wildest
dreams
AWAKENING PRINICPLE 4: God has an incredible
________________ for my life, and by
pursuing it, I can have the ___________
life I ever dreamed of
God, if you are real, make Yourself real to me.
Awaken in me the confidence that I can live a “WHAT IF”
life.
The Question of existence: “Why am I alive?”
The Question of significance: “Does My Life Matter?” and…
The Question of intention: “What is my purpose?”
Awakening to Life Through following Jesus, we discover “life and have it to the full.” The New Testament uses two words for
life: bios and zoe. Bios refers to chronological life as in days, months and years. But zoe has a deeper meaning, referring to life as it was meant to

5. be lived. Zoe is eternal life. When Jesus offers to His followers, “life and have it to the full,” He uses the word zoe. As we experience this final
awakening we realize, Now, this is living!
Awakening to Regret We pursue those primitive longings without God and when we do, we find ourselves alone, directionless and confused.
Regret finds us saying, I wish I could start over. Many people get stuck repeating these first two awakenings. Jon and I call that repetition the “sorry
cycle”–pursuing God-given longings outside of a relationship with God, which leads to regrettable decisions and actions. Many people get stuck in
the “sorry cycle” for months, some for years. Others never escape it.