Week 3: You're Called to Pop

Introduction

Ask if anyone has ever experienced the following scenarios.

Has anyone tried to look something up on the internet but gets hit with the no connection message?

Has anyone ever tried to go somewhere whether it would be with your friends or family and the car doesn’t start?

Has anyone ever had the problem with trying to call somebody and you don’t have service?

It’s definitely not fun when things don’t serve their purpose!

Transition:

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been looking closely into how God has called us to a purpose. Alec highlighted it pretty well for us last week with Romans 8:28 “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

So when we think about that specific verse, it tells us a couple of things.

All things work together for the good of those who love God.

Who are called according to His purpose.

Let’s focus on that 2nd aspect of that verse. “who are called according to his purpose”. That alone tells us that because of God’s love for us, He has given each and every one of us a purpose. Now, if you ever have been apart of almost any church camp or VBS, you have been told that you have a purpose.

Here’s a question for thought: What is the purpose of this purpose for us? As believers, we all have this purpose of going out to make disciples of all nations (The Great Commission). As shocking as it is, the purpose does not stop there. God has many purposes to fulfil this great and overall purpose and He applies it to each and every one of us.

1 Corinthians 3:7–11 “So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building. According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one is to be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.”

1. We Have One Job For The One Job

In this passage, Paul is speaking to the church in Corinth and he is speaking about how everyone has a certain job amongst the body of believers. No group of people has the exact same job as the other.

Imagine a restaurant. Lets say that a restaurant manager hired a bunch of waiters and waitresses and no one else. What’s the problem with that?

Right- No one is cooking the food, cleaning tables, sitting anyone down. One job is being done, but the other jobs are being neglected. Often times, we try to be like everyone else around us and do the same thing that everyone else is doing.

By doing this, we are choosing to blend in. This could be for a variety of reasons, but when we try to blend in, it’s usually because it’s the most easiest and the most comfortable thing to do.

God does not call us to blend in, but to rather stand out for the purpose of sharing the Gospel.

2. Different parts, 1 goal

1 Corinthians 12:12–14 “For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. Indeed, the body is not one part but many.”

What Paul is referring to here is that we are still one body in Christ, but we have many different parts.

-Share worship, sports, band talents.

No matter what it is that we are apart of and what we do in our daily routines, God gives us the purpose of carrying out the Gospel in the places and the activities that He places us in. He doesn’t call us to be in a stance to where we are always blending in. We are to be bold in sharing our faith, that way when we are in a scenario where the Gospel can be shared with someone, we can do it knowing that we have a purpose.

God gives us an even more reasoning in 1 Peter 2:9–10 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

3. Pop Out

The reason why we cannot blend in is because of how God has called us to live in the light. As God’s people, we cannot stay in the background the whole entire time expecting for things to magically happen on their own. We must be bold in sharing our faith and living out that purpose in anything that we do. There will be times to where we will fall back and blend in. We won’t always be perfect in this manner just for the same reason why we are not perfect.

That’s the beautiful thing about the Gospel. Jesus came and lived that perfect life for us. He died for us, he rose again for us. That alone gives us a purpose. Now He is calling us to go share that purpose.

Main point to wrap up: We have been called by God for the purpose of not blending in, but to stand out and live for His purpose.

Break up into small groups and mention that if anyone needs to talk to a leader, to please do so.