Identity in Christ: Purpose and Community in Faith

"We are called by God for a purpose. Now, Paul, he has a very unique, purpose. He's an apostle, right? And so that's just this word that means he's a sent one. He's someone who's been commissioned by God for a specific purpose. And he doesn't claim that title for himself out of selfish ambition or out of pride. He says this is something that God did by his will. You see, Paul's calling isn't something that he chose. It's not something even that he earned. In fact, his story demonstrates that his calling is a part of God's sovereign, his divine plan and purpose." [00:49:40] (34 seconds)


"Man, I'm so encouraged by them. Listen, God is working in our church. He's doing things that are powerful in alignment with his purposes. Now, my prayer is that we would all have such an intentional and a bold faith, right? But we talked to these guys a little bit about kind of what was going on and we gave them a chance to share on a Wednesday night in front of our students a current testimony, much like Caroline shared with us. And Josiah asked one of them, he just said like, hey, you know, what motivated all this for you?" [00:56:46] (30 seconds)


"And he said, you know, I started following Jesus and then I started reading the Bible and reading about followers of Jesus. And I noticed in the Bible that every follower of Jesus was just sharing the gospel with every single person they met. And so I thought, I guess I better start doing that too. That's all he said. But it's so simple, right? But this is the thing that's crazy about it. A new believer, the primary thing that he noticed about the identity of followers of Christ is that they were living with this purpose, right? To share the gospel, to be mission -driven, to be servants of God in this way." [00:57:56] (38 seconds)


"Being a part of God's family means we're connected to each other in a way that transcends biological ties, in a way that transcends cultural differences, in a way that transcends our personal preferences. We are united by our shared faith in Christ and our common mission to glory. Glorify him. I think often what happens is we get fixated on all of the different things that divide us." [01:02:44] (27 seconds)


"Because that's what it means to be a family. You have differences, right? You have struggles. You have these problems and these challenges. It can be messy and there can be misunderstandings and disagreements. But as brothers and sisters in Christ, what unites us is always more powerful than what divides us. We've got to hold tight to that." [01:04:23] (19 seconds)


"Being a part of a spiritual family, it's a blessing, but it's a responsibility that we have too. And I just want you to hear that. So let's just take another New Year's resolution here. Let's resolve to be a family centered church, okay? And I'll give you some practical ways you might do that. Number one, invest in relationships this year. Invest in relationships. If you're not connected to a life group or if you're not connected to a ministry team, maybe you've just been coming on Sunday mornings and listening to the messages or in and out a little bit one way or another. Look, you've got to take this step. You've got to jump in. You've got to commit yourself to the family." [01:05:29] (38 seconds)


"We are recipients of God's grace and peace. We're recipients of God's grace and peace. I could spend so much time on this particular point, but I won't. I would encourage you to meditate on what it means to be a recipient of God's grace and peace this week. But let's just start with the idea of grace." [01:09:22] (20 seconds)

"Grace is one of the most beautiful truths of the gospel. Because it's God's unmerited favor and kindness toward us that we can never earn or deserve. Remember Paul's words in Ephesians 2 verses 8 through 9 he says you've been saved by grace through faith not from yourselves it's God's gift it's not from your own works so that no one can boast grace is the foundation for our salvation it's the reason that we can stand before a holy God and be forgiven and be free it's it's the the very thing that gives a person like Caroline so much joy as she talks about the gospel despite the difficult circumstances that she has been facing but grace doesn't just stop at salvation it sustains our walk with Christ it sustains our walk with Christ because being a recipient of God's grace it means that we are recipients of God's power at work within us transforming us and enabling us to live out the purpose that he's given us despite ourselves despite all the ways that we might go against it Paul explains this in Titus 2 verses 11 through 12 he says the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and live in a sensible and righteous and godly way in this present age he says grace doesn't just save us but it trains us to live in a way that reflects God's character to live as people who are set apart as his family and committed to carrying out his mission now Paul also speaks of peace right and I think a lot of times when we think about peace we we view it as like an absence of conflict right so if you're if you're at peace there's just no conflict no no problems in your life that's not actually true in scripture peace is is much more than just like a ceasing of conflict it's a deep sense of wholeness and well -being and reconciliation with God despite conflict Romans 5 1 captures this beautifully it says since therefore we've been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ before we came to Christ we were separated from God our sin created a a barrier and there was no way for us to overcome it on our own but through the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus that barrier was removed we were reconciled to God and we now have peace with him despite our sin right despite the things that we've done to introduce conflict right and that peace it's not just a vertical piece something that's between us and God it's also something that expands into a horizontal piece our relationships with one another Ephesians 2 14 says it this way he is our peace who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility he's saying that through this gospel we have peace with God and peace with one another because barriers between people are broken down remember we're united as a family what unites us is so much more powerful than what divides us the barriers between people are broken down the pathway to unity has been opened by the death and resurrection of Jesus and so as recipients of God's peace we're then called to be peacemakers peacemakers in a divided and a broken world in our lives and in our lives and in our lives and in our lives and in our lives and in our lives in our families in our community and even in our church Paul's saying ultimately that our identity is inseparable from the gospel from the grace and the peace that we've received and that we proclaim and that we participate in and it's this identity marker that's undergirding all the others the gospel of grace and peace unites us as a family the gospel of grace and peace is what calls us to mission and so as a as a church we say we're gospel focused because we're focused on receiving and proclaiming and participating in that grace and peace gospel is not just the starting point of our faith it's the foundation of everything that we do grace and peace are central to the gospel they shape our identity our mission our relationships being gospel focused that's what makes us family centered and what makes us mission driven so one last resolution for us church can we resolve to be a gospel focused church" [01:10:43] (0 seconds)


"Number one is to just receive God's grace daily. Receive God's grace daily. Begin each day just by remembering that your salvation is a gift, and let that truth of grace free you from striving and fill you with gratitude. Let it fuel your worship as you come together with the family of God, and let it shape your purpose each day as you mission. You know, this is the time of year where people start Bible reading plans, and we start all kinds of different things like that. Let's just let this be the starting place, right? Wake up every day and recognize that you are a recipient of God's grace. Something you didn't deserve, that God would give it to you." [01:14:46] (45 seconds)


"These are the blessings at the heart of the gospel that shape who we are and how we live. Grace reminds us of God's unmerited favor. Peace assures us of our reconciliation with him and our call to be peacemakers in the world. So let's be a gospel -focused church, letting these truths transform our lives and our witness. As we're entering this new, new year, as we face all kinds of crisis and challenges, hold fast to our identity as a gospel -focused, family -centered, and mission -driven church. It's not about what we do. It's about who we are in Christ. Let's pray." [01:17:18] (39 seconds)