I Am What I Do

Introduction-

- ICEBREAKER: Tell me something you’ve done in your life! (or something cool you did today)

Where are we going today? (I Am What I Do) A trail of breadcrumbs that will lead us to the end next week for reflection night.

I hope to get us to sit on these trail points along the way

THE LIE: I AM WHAT I DO: I am defined by my failures, and my success.

Demonstration: My box of accomplishments, go through each one and make the display as obnoxious as possible. TALK IT UP. (Spotify Song List, Theater Awards, varsity letter, JROTC awards, CRAS,)

- Dive into deepest failures: broken relationships, my mental health struggles, etc.

My struggle with this sin.

- Talk about my constant striving, I’m wired to do things “Just to that next level” I can’t rest!!

How does that affect my relationship with Jesus? Is The Lord happy with me? This is a daily struggle of mine!

What does The Lord say?

(THE TRUTH). (Ecclesiastes 2:10, Psalm 139)

Psalm 139. sit with it.

Like I’ve mentioned, I feel that I must do more to please God. But that is so untrue! (Reread section of Psalm 139)

Let me ask something? Are you like me? Do you sometimes think that we have to earn our right standing before God through what we do? What does the word say?

Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,”

I struggle with this. And I bet some of us do too. Let me read it again *Read Again*

I love this. I love how clear this verse is. It says what it says!

Let me define a word for us.

*Define Striving*

Strive: to devote serious effort or energy.

Another definition says: struggle or fight vigorously.

For me, I often put those two definitions together.

This goes against our culture, this goes against our wiring, we cannot “Do” our salvation! It is a tangible, genuine gift from our good father!

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Can anyone tell me what an Idol is? Very good! If you’ve been following our bible in a year, you know that idols are all over the scriptures; we’ve seen statues and wood carven images that reflect other evil spiritual beings. they attracted the worship of many.

*Explain that idols are still real, but can look different in our time*

When we talk about our failures, successes, and things we do, we can turn these things into idols:

I want to rewind for a moment, because I also know that this might look a bit different for your age. I have some questions:

How many of you want to get good grades? That takes effort or doing.

How many of you want to be good at sports or music? That also takes doing.

Does anyone want to have real, meaningful friendships? That takes whole boatload of effort in this world!

It is absolutely good for you to put work and effort into these things, and the Lord will empower you to do so! Things can get dangerous very quickly though. We start living in these things, they literally define us.

I’m an athlete.

I’m a musician.

I’m a good friend.

In the words of Lighting McQueen: “I AM speed”

When you get older, one of the first questions you are asked when meeting someone new: “What do you do?” Our society’s identity is found in our work, and what we do.

But let’s look at our hearts for a second, has anyone heard of Sir Isaac newton’s three laws of physics? Can anyone tell me the Third law?

Nice! this can also be called Action or Reaction, or cause and effect.

So, if the effect is failures or successes, we need to understand the cause, what is driving us to pursue success? And what is our reaction when we fail?

Let’s map this out, because this is a big picture idea. Let’s open up the map! *Map on screen*

When you make your identity school, sports, music, or anything you “DO” there are two very real and present issues. Let’s imagine you are hiking on a trail, and you didn’t bring the map of your identity, so it’s getting dark and reach a split in the trail that leaves two options:

The trail of success, and the trail of failure. I’ll say again that neither of these are bad by themselves, but what happens when we make them all that we are? What happens when we literally measure ourselves by success or failure?

The trail of success is filled with tasty looking fruit. You are getting hungry after all.

The trail of failure is ridden with thorns, and wild beasts!

Which do we choose?

The trail of success leads you to pride, selfishness, and apathy. The fruits that tasted so good are actually poisoning you from the inside out!

The trail of failure leads you to pride, selfishness, and apathy. The thorns are tearing at your skin, and you’re starting to bleed.

Wait, isn’t that the same thing? *Explain how they’re unique on each trail*

Both trails will not end well for you.

There is a third trail however, but you likely didn’t notice it, as it’s a bit narrow, and not well traveled.

again, you didn’t have the map of your identity with you. The map was so expertly crafted by a veteran hiker who knows these trails better than anyone in history!

So there you are, bruised, hungry, and tired. And along comes the veteran Hiker.

He reaches out his arm and says, “I know who you are” “follow me”.

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Who are we? When we strip everything else away, this is what the word says:

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

think of the most beautiful building you’ve ever been in or seen. That building is a workmanship of whomever built it. Now imagine YOU, your very body, mind, and soul. YOU are a workmanship of our Good Father, as the psalmist said earlier, he Knit us together in our mother’s womb. He put in the work!

That’s not all!

*Epic Gospel Presentation and His yoke*

Is His Work good enough?