Tribe of the One - Week 2

Well, if you didn’t know already, I have 3 children. And when each of my sons (Noah, Chandler, and Hayden) were born I said roughly the same thing…he is beautiful…but the truth is…babies are ugly. They look more like a potato with arms and legs covered in…I don’t even want to go there…

The actual thing in front of you is not all that pretty when the baby is first born…the reason it is beautiful is because it is an experience like none other. For months you have watched this thing grow, you’ve dreamed about what it would look like on the outside, prayed that he was healthy…and there he is, seemingly in one piece…literally with his whole life ahead of him…he is minutes old.

In that moment he has never disappointed you, never talked back, never done a single thing wrong. And then the night comes…and you never sleep again!

How many of you were born with the ability to Play an instrument, like from birth you could just wail on a guitar?

How many of you were born with the ability to drive?

Ok, how many of you could read the minute you were born?

Talk, like actual words?

Walk?!?

Wow, y’all are some under achievers if I ever met some…y’all were some basic babies!

Of course, I’m kidding…no one is born with any ability. All we can do is breath, eat, sleep…and uh, the other thing that babies do all the time…

We, as a species, are seriously needy as we grow into our bodies and develop abilities. But what separates us form all other creation is that we were uniquely created in God’s Image, the Imago Dei. No other aspect of creation bears God’s Image…just us. Isn’t that wild!?

Something else that separates us form other creation is that we have the ability to dream. We literally have the ability to imagine circumstances that haven’t happened and, in a way, live out the future in our minds… let me illustrate:

Future 1:

We are on a hay ride, we are all together on the back of a huge trailer being pulled by a tractor. The floor of the truck is covered in hay because the hay bales are starting to come apart from wear…you can almost smell the hay.

I’m sitting next to you giving you a tattoo…did I mention that we aren’t on a road but driving trough a field that is really un-level and with every bump my hand slips and messes up the design of your brand new tattoo.

OR

Future 2:

You find out your long lost so-and-so was a filthy rich oil tycoon. Long story short, you have 25 million dollars coming your way...

You cash it in and you now have 25 million dollars in the bank.

Which future would you choose? (2, hopefully!)

I bet you can imagine that feeling, you never have to work a day in your life. I bet most of you already spent a good 10 million already in your mind. I know I have! But we are the only creation that has that ability.

Which is what we are talking about today. The future that you are creating. Did you know that the future of this church is up to you? You are responsible for what happens when I’m long gone… You have a unique gift, calling, and responsibility.

You have a unique gift, calling, and responsibility.

Psalm 139:14 NIV

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

says (read verse)

God made you for a reason. You’re not an accident, God knew you before you were even born. You have a purpose. Some of you need to hear that today, God knows you and you matter.

Some of you are thinking, great so I’m special…what does this have to do with which small group I’m going to be joining?!?

I’m glad you asked. If God created you for a purpose, and life is really really hard, how are you ever going to fulfill your purpose without a support group?

How are you going to piece together your puzzle without help?

Like we talked about last week, if you don’t have anyone to pick you up and carry you toward the goal sometimes how will you ever get there?

You see, I’m not talking about things you want to accomplish, or things you’d like to do…I’m talking about the specific calling that God has on your life. God-sized jobs are impossible to accomplish on your own. Because A) you need God’s help and B) His design is for you to live in community. So, if you need God’s help to get the job done you need to do it God’s way, and God’s way involves you being a part of a community!

1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV

9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—

If you want what God has planned for your life, the first thing you need to do is know Him…all of this is secondary if you don’t have a relationship with God…once you have a relationship with God you will know Him more and more and He will reveal more and more of Himself to you. And you will understand your unique calling and purpose.

The good news is that once you find out what it is one of two things will happen. It will ruin your life, or it will ruin your life…make sense? Ok, lets pray and get out of here…

Lets look at a few examples of God giving His people a unique calling and how it affects them:

Jonah:

Was a prophet, his job was to tell people what God told him. God told him to go the Nineveh…so he went to Tarsus? Wait God gave him a job to do and he went in the opposite direction? How did that work out for him? Would you call being thrown overboard from a ship in the middle of a raging storm only to be swallowed by a fish winning?

Was a prophet, his job was to tell people what God told him. God told him to go the Nineveh…so he went to Tarsus? Wait God gave him a job to do and he went in the opposite direction? How did that work out for him? Would you call being thrown overboard from a ship in the middle of a raging storm only to be swallowed by a fish winning?

Even after he went, he wasn’t satisfied. How could God forgive those people?

Moses:

Saved from the wrath of an evil Pharaoh as a baby, grew up an Egyptian prince, got angry and killed a dude then ran for his life.

He settled down in Midian, gets married, forgets about God and his people in Egypt. God shows up in a burning bush that is not consumed and what does Moses say?

Here am I Lord! Send someone else! Moses wasn’t about to go back to Egypt, he though of all the reasons he wasn’t qualified…but God said go and he begrudgingly went.

Moses did pretty well, but there was this one time where he publicly disobeyed God and mislead the Israelites, that cost him his chance to lead the people into the Promised Land…

Isaiah :

We have been studying about Isaiah in big church lately. God shows up and Isaiah says my life is ruined! My wildest dreams can never satisfy now…because he saw God seated on His throne.

God purifies Isaiah and says someone needs to go and remind My people that I am here! Who shall I send, who will go? Isaiah says? Here and I Lord, send me!

Disciples:

Jesus let His followers in on their purpose

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus tells His followers to go and tell, and He reminds them that He is with them always.

Well, if you are a follower of Jesus, that is why we do what we do. All of your specific gifts and purposes are given to you in order to achieve the greater purpose of the Church in reaching the world and telling those who don’t know that Jesus loves them, that He lived a perfect life that we could not, and died on a Roman cross, buried in a tomb for 3 days…and got back up!

As innocent as my 3 sons WERE when they were born, it is bitter sweet having children because you see them in that vulnerable state and realized there is nothing they can do to help themselves…and they aren’t able to do anything, right or wrong, and they are already in sin. They are born into it, they inherited my sinful nature, that I inherited from my parents and so on and so forth.

It’s not about being perfect, the deck was stacked against you the day you were born. And so many people in the world don’t understand that no amount of behavior modification can save you. Only Jesus can save you.

And if we don’t tell them, who will?

Whatever life group you sign up for, allow God to ruin your life, and when you find out what your specific calling is run towards it, don’t wait. Let your group help you become the person God wants you to be…and don’t forget our general purpose. Tell the world that Jesus loves them and He died to save them.

And if you are afraid of letting God in because you don’t want Him to ruin the life you have planned for yourself…I’ll leave you with this thought...

Matthew 16:26 NIV

26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

ALT ENDING:

Go back to Moses and talk about when God offered an easy path to the promised land but He wouldn’t go with them… (Exodus 33)