Tribe | Your Created Identity - Night 1

Now, I want you to look around the room at one another. See all of the different tribes represented in this room, and the many faces that look unfamiliar. Over the next few days, some of these unfamiliar faces may become your very best friends and part of your tribe.

A tribe is any group of people connected to one another, a leader, and an idea.

Tribes include:

Families

Cliques

Gangs

Teams

Bands

Churches

Squads

Brands

Practically any kind of gathering for a specific reason constitutes a tribe.

Human beings need tribes in order to function and exist.

We need a place to belong.

A few years ago, two psychologists began a study called the “belongingness hypothesis.” In this study, they wanted to know: ‘Do human beings really need other human beings?’

They interviewed tens of thousands of people from all different ages and stages of life and discovered that not only do we need one each other, but our closest friends and family influence how we feel, think, behave, and even how our bodies function!

They concluded that every human being needs:

To be known and belong, and live with purpose.

We need each other, and a place to belong.

All of us belong somewhere, and so let me ask you:

Where do you belong?

So let’s get to know to know each other and the different tribes represented in this room:

Middle school tribe?

High school tribe?

Adulting tribe?

Athlete tribe?

Mathlete tribe?

Nerd tribe? (NERDS RULE THE WORLD!)

Musician tribe?

Gaming tribe?

Foodie tribe?

Binge TV tribe?

Cuban tribe?

Central American tribe?

South American?

Gringo tribe?

Last, but certainly not least:

What about the Christ Journey Student tribe?!

All of us belong to some kind of tribe somewhere. Our lives exist in tribes, including my own.

As one of your Christ Journey pastors and your camp speaker this week, I want you to know me and my tribe. I love Jesus with all of my heart. I am a broken man on this Christ Journey with you, and I want to get to know you, so let me introduce to you my tribe…

[Show pic, wife, kids]

This is my beautiful, lovely, amazing wife, Stacy, who grew up in this church from birth and attended these very same camps herself in middle and high school. Back in the day, she even served as a small group leader. She gives me love, she gives me encouragement, she gives me all of my street cred in Miami, and she gave me the three most beautiful kids in the entire universe:

This is Hannah, Levi, and Jacob.

[SHOW PIC of just the kids]

This is my tribe, who I am raising up as fierce warriors in this world.

[SHOW PIC of Levi roaring]

Tribes provide a place for us to be known and belong and live with purpose.

Where do you belong?

Whenever I think about a tribe in the modern day, these guys always come to mind - they may be familiar to you, too. Check it out...

[[[PLAY ALL BLACKS HAKA]]]

The All Blacks Rugby team of New Zealand perform a dance called “The Haka” before every match. “Haka” means “challenge.” The Haka celebrates life triumphing over death. The Haka originates from the Maori tribe of New Zealand, who present several variations of the Haka, depending on the situation.

The Haka that you just witnessed by the All Blacks is given to challenge another tribe to war. In the All Blacks haka, they stuck out their tongues in an act called ‘whetero,’ a sign of passion and intimidation, and they widened their eyes in an act called ‘Pukana.’

In addition to warfare, Maori tribes performed the Haka for funerals, agricultural needs, and also weddings - believe it or not. The wedding Haka challenged the groom to love his bride and honor the tribe. In the wedding haka, the tribe would perform the haka challenge to the groom, and then if the groom accepted the challenge, he would then perform the haka back to the tribe and receive his bride.

I want to show you a Maori Haka performed at a 2016 wedding ceremony between two Maori descendants. After the groomsmen perform the haka, I want you to pay attention to how the groom and his bride respond to it. Also, I want you to pay close attention to how serious the crowd respects the Haka. The Haka looks strange to our American eyes, but in this ancient tribal dance, every man and woman is known and belongs and is living with purpose, together.

Before I show the Haka to you, though, I want to translate the Haka into English so that you can hear the meaning behind the challenge given to the groom. Listen to these words:

What is right is always right.

Indeed!

Be true to yourself, my son.

My concerns have been raised about you,

So pay attention!

What is this problem you are carrying?

How long have you been carrying it for?

Son, although, it may be difficult for you

And son, although it seems to be unyielding,

No matter how long you reflect on it

The answer to the problem

Is here inside you

Indeed, yes, indeed!

What is right is always right!

Check out the wedding haka:

[[[PLAY WEDDING HAKA]]]

Nearly every time I watch this video, it brings a tear to my eye. Watching a brotherhood and a sisterhood surround that couple in love and challenge the groom to live free from the turmoil inside in order to love his new bride grips my heart every time I watch it. In part because so few guys today rise to that kind of challenge.

After the Haka ended, what did you see each one of those men and women do?

They touched noses in an act called the Hongi: a traditional Maori greeting, which symbolizes the breath of life shared between two people and the shared God who gave us life.

[[[Show pic of groomsmen performing the Hongi]]]

The Hongi represents the very breath of life given by God to every person. This reminded me of what the author of Genesis wrote:

The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Genesis 2:7

Imagine the creator of Heaven and Earth placing his forehead on yours, touching your nose, and breathing his breath of life into you.

"The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Job 33:4

Our faith teaches that when our God fearfully and wonderfully made us (Psalm 139:14), God made us in his own image (Gen 1:27), and made us into his own people, his own tribe on earth, so that we may bring glory to God in this place on this Earth.

This week, I want to offer you an opportunity every night to join the Heaven tribe. Some of you belong to this tribe already, and others of you may be exploring it for the very first time.

Regardless, all of you belong here. All of you deserve to come nose to nose with us, and all of you deserve to be challenged, not because you did anything wrong. Rather, you deserve to be challenged because all of you deserve to make your own decision about what you believe.

This week, every leader in this room has committed their time and energy to help you find and follow the one who saved us.

Jesus changed my life when others in the heaven tribe invited me to know my Savior... belong to him... and live with purpose alongside of others in the tribe.

That changed my life.

Ever since then, the Bible has been my single greatest resource for knowing who God is and who I am. One of the letters that has helped me most is the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus.

Each night this week, I will walk us through a different passage from this letter, inviting the Holy Spirit to form us into God’s Heaven tribe.

The Apostle Paul, who wrote 2/3 of the New Testament and planted about 20 churches, wrote the letter to the Ephesians. This church mostly consisted of young people just like you, who lived in a city very similar to ours in Miami.

These young people lived a fast life. They had lots of opportunities and many voices calling out to shape their identity in all kinds of ways.

Like us, the Greeks loved to party. They loved indulging on drugs, sex, and power - all of which existed back then and most certainly exist today!

And just like us, their hearts swayed back and forth toward whatever made them feel good, and over time, they lost their love for one another, and ultimately, they lost their way.

Does that sound familiar to anyone here?

Perhaps you feel like an Ephesian, caught up in those very same things? Some of you used to feel more connected here, but now this tribe just doesn’t quite feel the same and you’ve lost your love for those who used to be close to you.

Building your faith and your tribe is like building a house. It takes months to build it up, but a single moment [snap finger] to bring it down.

Friends, for the next few days, let me invite you to open your mind and your heart back to your God who breathed his life into you, put his image into you, and calls you by name.

The Apostle Paul opened his letter to the Ephesians with a declaration of faith. Verses 3-14 is one long unbroken sentence in the Greek. Here, God wants anyone who feels:

Lost

Alone or

Uncertain

To know without any doubt who God is and who you are.

This is my life passage, and tonight, I invite it to become yours. As I read it to you, every time you see a highlighted word, I want you to shout it out at the top of your lungs!

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

12 God’s purpose was that Jews [[[who are God’s original people]]] who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own [[[placing his forehead on you, giving you his breath, placing his image on you, and]]] by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

This is God’s tribe. This is the Heaven tribe.

No shame.

No guilt.

No scorecard.

For those who place their trust in Christ, these truths instantly become yours. In Christ, God’s tribe becomes yours.

Paul began this great sentence by writing:

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

For those who belong to this tribe, you receive it all… everything… every blessing, along with every good thing from the heavenly realms. All of God’s goodness belongs to you!

Every good gift belongs to you! That’s how God designed the Heaven tribe! Every good gift means a life full of being known, belonging and living with purpose. Every good gift of the Holy Spirit consists of the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). All of it belongs to you!

Now, for some of you and please be honest with yourself, some of you right now may be thinking: my tribe doesn’t give me a place where I can be known and belong and live with purpose. My tribe:

Takes from me

Ignores me

Makes fun of me

Makes me do things that I don’t feel comfortable doing

Doesn’t really know me at all

Listen, all of us fall short with one another, but sometimes tribes seek to hurt others.

In fact, some tribes lead us away from our deepest, most fundamental needs and into other hurts, such as:

Isolation

Confusion

Doubt

And most hurtful: Rejection

Nothing hurts more in this life than rejection.

Rejection is the total dismissal of your most basic needs.

Rejection says, “You don’t matter to me,” which makes us feel Hopeless and Helpless.

In fact, in a recent survey of teenagers who had attempted suicide and survived said that feeling hopeless and helpless ultimately led them to decide to end their own life.

If you feel alone tonight, then if you only hear one thing I say tonight, I want you to know that you belong here at the Christ Journey tribe. We want to know you. We want you to live out your purpose here, and our God wants to go [[[point to forehead]]] right here with you to give you his breath and call you his own.

Here at this tribe, we choose one another and make space for everyone to be known and belong and live with purpose…

Because, ultimately, God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8

Listen, all of us here will fall short with one another, and all of us will fall short of God’s glorious standard for our lives, which we’ll discuss more tomorrow, but hear the good news for you right now: God saw you and chose you long before you ever chose him.

Some of you tonight need to silence the shame voice of rejection inside of you, speaking lies about you masked as truth, and attune your ear to the voice of the Spirit who calls you righteous and his beloved. God loved you so much that before this world ever existed, God chose you, in Christ, to be his special possession.

Don’t fall for the lie of rejection.

4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

In Christ, you are not rejected.

Before the foundations of the world, “God chose you in Christ.”

Before God ever spoke and created anything seen or unseen, “God chose you in Christ.”

Before God created, “God chose you in Christ.”

Before any of the hurts or pain or lies ever happened or before your parents divorced or before your break-up or before your friends abandoned you, “God chose you in Christ.”

Two distinct characteristics make the Heaven Tribe unique among all of the other tribes in the world, which are these:

In Christ, you are holy and without fault in God’s eyes.

Only the Heaven Tribe can claim those truths.

No other family, nation, or religion.

All of the other tribes in this world lift high things that fade and fall short.

Championships fade

Politics fall short

Buildings collapse

Nations end

Fashion trends evolve

Even Apple products eventually breakdown…

But Christ and his Heaven tribe will live on forever!

Your Heavenly Father made you holy, which means set you apart. God made you different from all of the things that fade and fall short in this world in order to bless you and bless others through you.

Think about a hospital. Patients need someone set apart from them in order to make them better. This tribe, God’s people, is that someone! Your friends, family, and your peers - some of you right now, even - need holy, set apart young men and young women in their lives to help them find Christ and heal from their past hurts and junk.

Listen, for those of you who already trust in Jesus, God did that for you and then set you a part in this tribe in order to be the means through which others see the love and care of Jesus in our world.

God chose you to be holy and set apart.

In Christ, God also made you without fault in his eyes, meaning this: your Heavenly Father now sees you through Jesus’ eyes, who is perfect.

Thus, whatever junk from your past, whatever hurtful decisions you have made, whatever issues you are facing right now, whatever shame you are carrying, your Heavenly Father sees you as perfect through His perfect Son’s eyes.

In fact, God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. (Verse 5)

No one forced God to do this. God wanted to do this, and it gave him great pleasure!

Listen, each one of these 12 verses in this passage shows a different aspect of what God accomplished for you:

Blessed us in Jesus - verse 3

Chose us in Jesus - verse 4

Adopted us into his family through Jesus - verse 5

Poured grace on us in Jesus, the one whom he loves - verse 6

Gave us redemption through Jesus - verse 7

Lavished grace on us through Jesus - verse 8

Made known to us the mystery of his will as he purposed in Jesus - verse 9

Intends to bring us into unity under Jesus - verse 10

Provided us with an inheritance through Jesus - verse 11

Gave us hope in Jesus - verse 12

Marked us in Jesus with the seal of salvation - verse 13

Guarantees the redemption of all of us, his holy people, through Jesus - verse 14

Friends, God chose you, and guarantees his choice for you by giving you his Holy Spirit as a promise.

God signed his name on the dotted line for you.

God chose you, and now in Christ, God calls us to choose one another.

Paul closed this passage by offering one of the greatest prayers recorded in the Bible. This same prayer applies to you now:

“That you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 1:19-20)

This same power that raised Christ from the dead now lives in those who believe, coursing through your veins, beating in your hearts, dwelling in your thoughts, giving life to your entire body! That same power that raised a man from the dead back to life now lives in you by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The translation of these words ‘mighty power’ from the Greek are “dynameos energeian,” which literally means “Dynamite energy”

You have dynamite energy at work in you. That’s what it means to be known and belong and live with purpose in the Heaven Tribe!

Therefore, my question for you tonight is:

Where do you belong?

Your Heavenly Father chose you and gave you this tribe.

What do you choose? Heavenly Father, we thank you…

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