Tribe | Your Called Identity - Night 4

Your Heavenly Father has given you his identity, breathed his life into you, and created his image in you. In Christ, you have been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. This is who you are. This is our Heaven tribe.

On the second night, we said: In Christ, you are known.

Sin broke our identity when we decided to go our own way and live like the god of our own life. Like a rose cut from its root, our lives have been severed from the source of all life itself. We are dead in our sins and transgressions. We have obeyed the commander of the power of nothingness. We have found beauty in our oblivions and buffered ourselves from one another and the truth about our lives.

Yet, God promised to hear our cries:

The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.

He rescues them from all their troubles. Psalm 34:17

In Christ, your Heavenly Father sees you and calls you by name. He desires your honesty. God wants your words. The prophet Hosea wrote one of my favorite passages in Scripture:

Take words with you

and return to the Lord.

Say to him:

“Forgive all our sins

and receive us graciously,

that we may offer the fruit of our lips.

God desires your honest words, for the fruit of your lips reveals the condition of your heart! Your Heavenly Father knows you, and in Christ, we know one another, as we share our honest truth with each other.

Last night, we said: In Christ, you have been redeemed.

In Christ, God bought you back. You belong to him. He restored your broken identity back to right. And now, through Jesus’ eyes, your Heavenly Father sees you as perfect and right.

What a gift!

God paid a high price for you. 1 Corinthians 7:23

God made you his own royal son or daughter, and placed his Holy Spirit power on you to accomplish infinitely more than you might ever imagine!

And now, In Christ, you have been called.

In Christ, you are known and belong, and you have been given a great purpose to live!

I want us to pray out loud together, one of the great prayers in the Bible:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

Let me hear you yell out at the top of your lungs: TRIBE!

The very next verse says:

Therefore… Lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Ephesians 4:1

This whole letter boils down to this one sentence.

The first 3 chapters of this letter explain what God did for you in Christ to call you back to him, and the next 3 chapters now explain how God now calls you to live your life in Christ - both as individuals and together, as one tribe!

The instruction begins: Lead a life worthy of your calling.

Now, what does worthy mean?

Does it mean that we need to earn God’s favor on us?

No… in fact, let’s not forget what we discussed on the second night:

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8

You didn’t do anything to deserve salvation, nor could you ever do anything to earn it.

Instead, the term worthy means ‘act in a way that fits the great value of your calling and the great God who gave it to you.’

And that calling comes from Jesus himself when he gave us the greatest commandment, saying:

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’’ Matthew 22:37-38

Loving God is our first priority, but equal to it is loving others as yourself. Love always flows in three directions: Love God, love others, and love yourself.

This is your first and greatest calling.

For about 10 years, I served in student ministry with middle school and high school students. And still now, I lead our young adult Drive community. Do you know what question I heard the most, as a Student Pastor, and still get most often, as a Young Adult Pastor: What does God want for my life?

Listen closely to me, lean in, I am going to answer this question for you right now: God wants you to lead your life worthy of your calling to love.

Period.

Whether as a lawyer, contractor, doctor, teacher, pastor, coach, retailer, sales associate, manager, farmer, athlete, musician, scientist, whatever you do:

Lead your life worthy of your calling to love.

Listen, God is pleased with whatever you school you attend, whatever job brings you satisfaction, whatever gifts you possess, whatever money you make or don’t make, so long as you:

Lead your life worthy of your calling to love.

Your calling has great value. It was given to you by a man who died for you, so treat it like a priceless inheritance, and live worthily into it.

Now: how do you lead your life worthy of your calling?

In short, the answer is: be Jesus. Lead your life like Jesus led his life.

Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. Ephesians 4:2-3

That sounds a lot like Jesus to me.

——————

Paul began his instruction, saying: Always be humble.

Friends, Jesus’ life modeled humility. Our culture tends to favor pride and personal ambition… but Jesus didn’t. Instead, he made himself less, and when we make ourselves less, too, then we make space for God’s Spirit to come alive in us.

John the Baptist said: He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. John 3:30

The less you make your life all about you, then the greater God’s Spirit fills you and shines through you to do immeasurably more than you could ask or imagine!

Now, humility doesn’t mean that you let people take advantage of you and knock you around. That’s called weakness. Jesus wasn’t weak. He was God. Jesus possessed all of the strength and power to create the universe at the palm of his hand, but in humility, he made himself a servant for us. In fact, He took every sin from all of humanity and bore it himself on the cross.

Friends, that’s called true strength.

Here’s the great irony about humility, whenever you pour your life out to serve and love others, you actually show God’s incredible strength and power alive in you.

I am giving you a Haka challenge: Do you want to be the strongest, most powerful young man or young woman at your school, then think about yourself less and love your peers, your family, your teachers, and your friends with the kind of love and respect that Jesus showed you That’s superhero strength!

Lead your life worthy of your calling by always being humble

——————————

Always be gentle.

Like humility, gentleness does not mean being timid or shy. The root word of gentleness is ‘self-control’. Gentleness is the ability to control your own strength so that it does not overtake you.

Brothers, listen to me.

Be Jesus, as you lead your life gently and self-controlled. Brothers, we need your strength. Don’t be weak. Be strong and courageous. Show your maturity by living with gentleness and self-control.

Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28-29

Jesus showed true masculine strength by providing a safe place for people to be known and belong, and live with purpose.

Show the power behind these truths, as you demonstrate the same to others and yourself.

Lead your life worthy of your calling by always being gentle and self controlled.

——————————

Be patient with one another.

As Paul instructed young Timothy: God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. 1 Timothy 1:16

God showed his great patience with you, and as the Heaven tribe, we must also show this same kind of enduring patience with others. Listen, friends, when we lack patience with others or even ourselves, we’re lacking humility. Pride and patience can not coexist in the same body. In fact, whenever someone says to me, “I’m not a patient person,” then I interpret that as: ‘you have a pride issue.’

Patience grows from humility, and in an instant culture like ours, this might be one of the most radical ways that you can lead your life worthy of your calling in front of anyone and show them that they, too, can believe in Christ and receive eternal life.

Lead your life worthy of your calling by being patient with one another.

——————————

Make allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.

This means put up with each other. Bear one another. Don’t leave each other. When we allow for each other’s faults, we say to that other person: “I love you, even when you fall short with me, even when I don’t like you, I still choose to love you and stay with you.”

Friends, all of us fall short and sin against each other. But when you leave your friend because he or she offended you, then you essentially say to your friend, “I am defining you by what you did to me, rather than how Christ defines you.”

How does Christ define you? Holy and blameless!

Leading your life worthy of your calling means that you act the same way as Christ. See your friends through redeemed eyes.

Stay with your friends. Work it out. Apologize. Seek forgiveness. Receive your friend’s forgiveness. Fight for your friendships and family members, and make allowances for their faults, as they make allowances for yours.

This matters because not only because your friends fall short, but so do you. You need this as much as your friends, so don’t withhold your forgiveness. Make space for your friends.

Now, on the flip side, if someone is hurting you or abusing you, then please listen to me right now, you need to leave that person - whoever that person may be - speak to a trusted adult leader tonight, and let them help you find safety. God has heard your cry, and your Heaven tribe is with you.

Fight for your friends and family. Work through your issues with them.

Now, let me address dating for a moment. From my observation of working with young people, couples seem to get way too serious way too quickly both physically and emotionally.

Please hear my heart for you: I recommend not dating in middle school or high school because emotionally-speaking, relationships place too much stress on your mind and heart. Like wet concrete, your mind and heart are still forming, which can make mistakes feel like a permanent imprint on you. Friends, your behavior has consequences, and some of them stay with you forever.

On Monday, you will remember what happened on Friday night. Ten years from now, you will remember what happened on that Friday night.

Be careful.

Guard your heart above all else,

for it determines the course of your life. Proverbs 4:23

Don’t give it away too easily or too soon. Be patient with yourself and resist getting caught up in the cultural rapids of dating. Besides, look around, and be honest with yourself: how many of your friends have had positive dating experiences where both people led each other worthy of their callings? Probably not very many. Friends, that’s the benchmark. If you cannot lead yourself in a manner worthy of your calling in Christ, then don’t date. Period.

Friends, Lead your life worthy of your calling by making allowance for each other’s faults in love.

————————

Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit.

As a heaven tribe in a world fractured by individualism and selfishness, this may be your greatest witness to Christ alive in you!

Friends, stay together. No matter what, stay together. Stop your foolishness, moving back and forth between this tribe and others. Give your whole life to one tribe or another. This tribe needs you. It’s pure selfishness to hop from one tribe to another, consuming whatever you want that makes you feel good.

Ultimately, that kind of lifestyle leads to isolation and loneliness because no one knows you, you don’t belong anywhere, and you aren’t living with any kind of real purpose.

Just last week, Harvard published a study on loneliness. They found that your age group - Generation Z - is the loneliest generation. 48% of you - 1 out of 2 - feel isolated and alone.

Which means roughly half of you right now feel isolated and alone.

Harvard called this a public health crisis. Do you know what else has been called a public health crisis? AIDS, cancer, diabetes, and now, loneliness.

Loneliness isolates us, which detaches us from God, others, and even from ourselves. This is the opposite of love and how God created you to do life with the Heaven tribe.

The Heaven tribe needs to fight for one another in this very same way! Greet each other with the Hongi, share your life with one another, and bring everyone far from God as close into proximity with God as possible. You need to fight for that! You need to stand up for each other. Get to know one another. Include each other. See one another in the same way that God sees you: holy and blameless. God sees you through Jesus. Defend each other. Encourage each other, and for the sake of leading your life worthy of your calling, you need to stay united to one another.

Mike and Andrew at Gables.

Freddy at Kendall.

These men and their wives love you and have devoted their lives to serve you.

These leaders sacrificed time away from their work and families to love you and serve you.

Tomorrow we get to go home with them.

Which by the way, camp doesn’t end tomorrow. It ends Sunday at church with your rally hosts and me preaching this Sunday. Let’s show our church that we are one united tribe.

Just before the Romans crucified Jesus, he prayed for you and for all of us, saying:

Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are. John 17:11

Jesus prayed for God to unite the Heaven tribe together in the same way that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united, which is quite astounding because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one and the same God.

It doesn’t get closer than that, and Jesus prayed that same closeness for us.

As Jesus looked to the cross, his final prayer was for the Father to protect us by the power of his name so that we would stay united together!

Friends, in a digital age with greater connectivity than any other time in our 200,000 year homo sapient existence, your generation is experiencing greater loneliness and isolation than any other time ever.

One of your friends shared with me: “I’m tired of watching other people live their lives. I know that nobody cares about my life.”

God intended for us to be known and belong and live with purpose, and he gave us the heaven tribe in order for us to live this out!

This week, some of you have been more concerned about your streaks on social media than staying fully present with your God and with your tribe.

This past May, Taylor Swift shared her own challenges with social media, saying:

"Our priorities can get messed up existing in a society that puts a currency on curating the way people see your life.” T. Swift

For every single one of us, social media provides a platform for us to “curate the way people see our lives” as Taylor said, which means ‘to carefully select and organize what goes on display,’ which misrepresents your true identity. Listen, friends, misrepresentation is isn’t honest to others or yourself.

Social media gives the appearance of closeness, but ultimately, no one comes all the way close to anyone because curated identities create a distance between yourself and others.

And you might want that because you fear what others might think about you, if they knew the real you… but you know what… we want to know the real you. This tribe wants to know the real you.

People need to know the real you. Why? Because God wonderfully and fearfully made you in his image. You are special, and we need to know you.

Therefore, I am challenging all of you tonight with a social media haka: I challenge you to use all of your social media platforms in such a way that leads your life worthy of your calling. Limit yourself to one hour total per day, and instead of posting curated images of a false identity, post your truth and advance God’s Heaven tribe!

I challenge you to this. Remaining united to God and the others in your tribe means that you must decrease in order to allow God’s Spirit to fill you.

Lead a life worthy of your calling by making every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit.

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Finally, Bind yourselves together with peace.

To bind means to tie together.

Like the California Kickball game! You bound your hands together.

As an Eagle Scout - any Boy Scouts in the room? - I camped a lot with my troop. As I gained experience in the woods, I transitioned from bringing my own tent to only using what I could find in the woods for shelter. I tended to look for small trees with a 4-6 inch diameter trunk. After I found them, I chopped them down and used them to make a teepee tent. Using 3-4 trunks, I could smooth them out and make poles to hang leafed branches over.

After I angled the poles, I used a rope to bind the poles together at the top in order to secure them in place. The Apostle Paul instructed the church to do the very same thing with each other. In order to remain united, the Apostle Paul used the image of binding ourselves together through the bonds of peace.

Peace is the rope that binds the heaven tribe together.

The Jewish people and the first century church understood peace through a principle called ‘Shalom.’ Shalom more accurately means wholeness.

Throughout the Old Testament and the early church, one didn’t merely give shalom to another, a person practiced shalom. Shalom is a way of life. Living shalom means integrating wholeness into every aspect of your life.

Shalom means:

Making wrongs, right.

Listening with empathy.

Helping others through hardships.

Restoring the broken.

Finding the lost.

Sharing with someone in need.

Living with generosity.

Forgiving wrongs done to you

Essentially, shalom means doing your part to bring the world back to how God originally created for it to be.

Truly, Shalom keeps us tied into the tribe, together, as we seek to live whole lives alongside one another lived with honesty.

Therefore, lead your life worthy of your calling as you bind yourselves together in shalom peace.

—————————— READ FROM THE BIBLE!!!

Speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Stop telling lies.

Let us tell our friends the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.

Don’t sin by letting anger control you.

Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil to whisper lies to you.

Quit stealing.

Use your hands for good hard work.

Give generously to others in need.

Don’t use foul or abusive language.

Stop cussing.

Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

Don’t bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.

Instead, be kind to each other, and tenderhearted.

Finally, forgive one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

Forgiveness is Humility

Forgiveness is Gentleness

Forgiveness is Patience

Forgiveness is Love

Forgiveness is Unity

Forgiveness is Shalom Peace

In your repentant surrender, forgiveness was God’s first act toward you.

May forgiveness be your first act toward others.

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As each one of you lead your lives worthy of your calling in Christ, and stay unified as a tribe, then Jesus promised you and the church everywhere that:

All the powers of hell will not conquer this TRIBE. Matthew 16:18

Your is the victory in Jesus! Stand with me!!!

Christ in you, the hope of glory, you cannot be defeated, no matter what powers or principalities threaten you or try to overcome you. No matter what deception the devil, the commander of the power of nothing, whispers to you. In Christ, nothing can overcome you, for “God raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 2:6

Your victory has been forever secured! For all of us who trust in Christ, this is a promise. It has been sealed and guaranteed. You have nothing to fear, nothing to worry, nothing to keep you back from roaring out together with the Lion of Judah on your side, calling the name of Jesus, as one tribe, one body with one calling and one purpose!

Be the heaven tribe! Lead on worthy of your calling! And let’s help others find and follow the one who saved our souls from now into eternity! Amen and amen and amen!

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