Sermon Tone Analysis

Message

On the first night, we said: In Christ, you have been chosen.

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