Callings and Covenants

So I'm still a little sick.

Last week I was a lot sick.

Like last Sunday, I thought I was fine.

Five minutes into this message, I was like cold sweats galore.

I was having this conversation in the back of my head the whole time.

Like, can they see how sweaty I am?

Do they know?

But no one said anything, so it's okay.

Today, just a little sick.

So I might cough a few times.

I apologize in advance.

Today, we are wrapping up something that we started just three weeks ago, but it's kind of part of a bigger something that we're calling the whole story.

And so we're taking the rest of our year and we're going through the entire story of the Bible.

We've broken it into 14 different series that you can see on the screen.

So this is the year ahead of us.

We've never done anything like this before.

I've never had a plan that was further out than like two weeks in my life.

So this is a big deal.

And the cool thing about it is no matter what your comfort level, knowledge level of scripture is, by the end of this year, you will be able to pick up God's word and engage it maybe in ways you haven't before.

And it's powerful and it's practical and it's profound.

The scriptures that we have are amazing.

They're amazing.

There's actually been sort of a movement in the last decade or so, especially with modern churches, to almost distance themselves a little bit from Scripture out of a fear that maybe scripture just doesn't play nice with the cultural tendencies of our day.

And I'm like, that's just silly.

Because so many of the amazing moments in my life where God has shown me something, I needed to see something in a way I'd never seen it before.

It happened as I was in his word.

Because it's alive.

Because he's alive and his spirit breathed.

The Bible says that all scripture is God breathed, it's useful to us.

And so the more familiar we become with his word, the better we get at recognizing his voice and discerning what God is saying to us versus what all the other voices in the world are saying to us.

The deeper the roots of our faith become, the stronger we are, the more we're able to with withstand any temptations and struggles, crisis of faith, you name it.

God's word is powerful, it is practical, it is profound, and it is true, and it has stood the test of time.

And so by going through it and understanding it better, we just get stronger.

I'm so excited about this.

Today we're wrapping up our very first series called The Human Project.

We started this two weeks ago, and we're looking at some of the first interactions we have of God and people in the Bible, because those are the two main characters.

Genesis 1.26, God says, Let us make man and our image to be like us.

Let us make human beings.

That's who we are.

The two main characters of the story of the Bible, it's God and human beings.

And we get to see how that relationship plays out.

And we learn so much about ourselves and we learn so much about God.

For example, the first Sunday we looked at this one word, covering.

We learned that God covers us.

God covers us when we mess up.

We have a God who's willing to provide a covering for us.

And so if you know the first story of the Bible, God makes two people.

He puts them in a beautiful garden.

It's called Eden.

And it's amazing.

Like all of us wouldn't want to be there.

It's like five-star level resort, endless fruit buffets.

The dress code, it's a little iffy.

They were naked.

All right, it's a nudist colony.

But not like the ones today.

Not weird.

They just I realized I may have offended someone that's been to a nudist colony, and then I was like, I think I'm okay offending someone that's been to a nudicology.

It's alright.

I'm good with that.

Um, don't do that.

No need for that.

The Bible says that they were naked and unashamed.

And it's really actually amazing to think about that when God created us as people, we were okay with ourselves.

And it's this innocence.

He puts two trees in the garden of significance.

One is called the tree of life.

He says, eat freely from this.

It represents a relationship with God.

Or we can just come to Him and get all that we need.

And He puts this other tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And it's so amazing to think about the fact that the forbidden fruit, that's still a phrase we have in culture today, the forbidden fruit was not lust, greed, power.

It was knowing right from wrong.

Knowledge of good and evil.

God said, I don't want you to eat from that tree.

That's a strange idea sometimes, and I've talked about this before, but I like to think about it in terms of my children.

I get it.

I got four kids, and my my third just turned seven this last week, my youngest turns five next month, and none of them are innocent anymore.

They all know, and I mean that, they all know right from wrong.

And it's amazing the fact that all of them know right from wrong, how much of my relationship with them right now is disciplinary.

Because I have to hold them accountable to what they know.

And it's frustrating.

I don't enjoy it.

It's not like I wake up every day and be like, man, I hope I catch them doing something they ought not to do.

And yet it happens every day.

And I have to I have to do that.

And I imagine God may have had a desire for us where he just wanted a relationship with us that was just innocent.

He loved us, he created us, and we just walked with him.

And it didn't matter to him that we were naked.

It didn't matter to him that we didn't know a lot of things because he didn't care about that.

He just wanted to know us and have a relationship with us.

But when we chose to do things our own way, when we chose God's, when we chose our way over God's way, we decided, you know what, we'll decide what's right and wrong in our own eyes.

Even if that's ignoring what God has said, our eyes were open, and the first thing we felt was shame.

It wasn't freedom, it wasn't, it wasn't self-empowerment, it wasn't like people said, Man, this is what I've been missing.

The first thing we felt when we went against God's good plan was shame about ourselves.

That's a consequence.

Sin always has consequences, but God did not stop at the consequence, he covered our shame.

Scripture teaches that he went out and he shed blood and took an animal and took its skin, its fur, and he created clothing for us.

And he basically says to Adam and Eve, you know what?

I'm not gonna leave you in a state of shame.

I will cover.

I will cover you.

And it's a picture of Jesus right in some of the earliest pages of the Bible, because Jesus shed his innocent blood to cover our sin, to cover our shame and our guilt and to forgive us.

We see pictures of Jesus all throughout the Bible.

You'll see that.

Jesus himself said to the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his day, you search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but all the scriptures point to me.

We're gonna see that play out so many times.

Almost every Sunday.

I mean it.

So God covers us.

And then we we looked last week at the story of Noah and the flood, a story that a lot of us may have a hard time with or have had a hard time with.

Maybe you know people that hear that story and go, man, I don't like that story.

I have a hard time reconciling that story with the idea of a loving God who loves me.

Like that's what we sing about on Sundays.

And if you weren't here for that, I encourage you to listen to it.

I don't want to get into all of it again, but we we talked about those dynamics and how we can read that story and maybe go, okay, maybe I get it.

But that story is interesting because we learned something else about God.

Not only does he cover us, God is committed to us.

He's committed to us, he gives us so much commitment because it looks for a moment like God's done with us.

It looks for a moment like God says, you know what, they're not worth the trouble.

They keep messing up, they are more evil than I ever imagined they could be, and he's God, he made us, he has the right to say, the human project is over.

And it looks for a moment like he will, but then he stops.

And he chooses this man Noah and his family.

He says, I'm gonna start over with them because God is committed to seeing this human project through, even in wickedness and evil, like we probably couldn't imagine.

And so you would think that after Noah, right, the world floods.

Like they get off the boat and be like, We are we are we're gonna tow the line.

Like we are, don't worry, God, none of that's ever gonna happen again because things got really bad before the flood.

But no, it all spirals again, just spirals and spirals and spirals.

And so today we see God take a new approach when it comes to his human project with us.

And we're gonna look at two more words, and they do begin with the letter C, because that's how my brain works, forgive me.

It's cheesy, I know.

We've talked about covering, commitment, and today we're gonna talk about the words calling and covenant.

God has a new approach, and it involves a calling and a covenant.

Let's look at Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

The Lord said to Abram, it's the first time we meet this man, he's a man of great significance in the story of Scripture.

Later, his name is changed to Abraham.

He says, Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.

I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.

And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.

So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him.

Lot was his nephew.

Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.

He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot.

Ah, see if I would have just kept reading it, it said that.

And all of his wealth, his livestock, and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran, and headed for the land of Canaan.

And when they arrived in Canaan, Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem.

There he set up camp beside the oak at Morah.

And at that time the area was inhabited by Canaanites.

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I will give this land to your descendants.

And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

After that, Abram traveled south and set up camp in the hill country with Bethel, to the west of Ai, and to the east.

And there he built another altar and dedicated it to the Lord, and he worshipped the Lord.

This is the beginning of a new approach in the human project, a calling and a covenant.

The very first thing God says to Abram is leave.

Go.

Where?

To a land.

What land?

Don't worry about it.

I'll show you later.

But I need you to go.

And it's amazing.

Two things are amazing to me.

Number one, it's amazing to me that like Abram did it.

Number two, that God didn't tell his wife.

Like that God put that on Abram to have to have that conversation with Sarai.

Because can you imagine that?

Like he goes up to Sarai and says, hey, we're leaving.

Where are we leaving?

We're just we're leaving.

Where are we going?

I have no idea.

Well, when are we gonna know where we're going?

I I heard a voice.

And it said, go.

And it shows you that Sarai must have had a lot of respect for Abram.

He must have been a man of character because you know, a typical person says that.

You're like, no, I'm not going anywhere with you.

We're staying right here.

But there must have been some look in his eyes, some seriousness that indicated to her that something has happened, something significant.

So they leave.

They go.

But it's not just a calling to change, it's not just change for the sake of change.

It's not just, hey, go somewhere else.

God says, I will make you into a great nation.

I'll give you descendants.

Now, this is interesting because Abram is an old man and he does not have any children.

And that had to be really hard for him because his name is Abram, which means in Hebrew, exalted father.

His name is Exalted Father, and he has no children.

He has to tell people, left and right, I'm Abram.

Oh, how many kids do you have?

None.

That was probably a daily pain.

But God says, I will give you descendants.

But it's not just so that you'll be blessed, Abram.

I'm going to make you a blessing to others.

I'm going to bless you so that you'll be a blessing to others.

In fact, you will be a blessing to all of the families of the earth, and he is, because Jesus is a descendant of Abraham.

Jesus comes through Abraham's line, and here we are today.

Worshiping Jesus, grateful for Jesus, thinking about Jesus, talking about Jesus.

Jesus is everything that brings us together.

He's what we need, he is the solution for life.

And he came through Abraham.

So God begins with a calling.

He calls Abraham into something greater and something more than Abraham believes he's capable of.

More than what Abraham could ever dream for himself.

It's funny, I got reminded this last week of how callings work and the need to be called out of something into something greater in an interesting way.

And so, because I teach all the time, I have to have a lot of material.

And a lot of that comes through my kids.

I'm grateful for having four children.

They give me a lot of material, but sometimes they're not enough.

Like sometimes even they don't give me enough material.

And I need God to do other things to give me something interesting to talk about.

And He's so faithful to do that.

And there'll be these moments in my life that are so random and so weird.

I'm like, that was odd.

And then it's like, oh, that's why.

Because I need I need this for a message.

And so let me tell you what this is awesome.

I got a text last week from a scammer.

I don't know if you guys have ever had these texts before.

And if you've never had one of these, just be on guard because here's the way they often go.

Someone will text you and they'll call you a name that isn't your name.

They'll say something like, hey, you know, Jerry, um, missed you yesterday, and you'll be like, This isn't Jerry, and then they'll go, Oh, I'm so sorry, I have your number in my phone, but it's not your name.

What is your name?

And you'll tell them your name.

And they'll be like, oh, what a funny coincidence.

And they'll keep the conversation going in a really odd way that you would normally, you would never do that.

You would never be like, if you text someone and have the wrong number, you wouldn't be like, so, what are you up to?

You know?

You would just be like, my bad.

Awkward, right?

You'd move on.

But they'll they want to keep it going because they're fishing for information.

They're trying to fish.

And so they'll try to find out maybe like what you do for a living.

They'll say, Oh, I'm what do you this is what my career is.

What do you do?

What a fun coincidence.

I feel like I've met a friend, like they'll keep it going.

Some of you have any of you had these texts come in?

Yeah, some of you are like, no, but I've been texting with a stranger that no, don't do that, stop.

It's not your new friend.

Okay?

I had this happen on Christmas Eve this last year.

Someone started texting me, and I and I just I mess with them.

I just look at it as an opportunity to waste their time and have a little fun at their expense.

So this happened again last week, and I want to show you the conversation.

I'm gonna read it on my phone, but we've got it up on the screens.

So I get this text Thursday, February 16th.

Hey Alice, why are you not at work today?

And what they want me to say is, this isn't Alice, but I'm like, I know what this is.

So I text, I was sick.

And this is all just coming off the top.

I'm just having fun.

I said, you know, James, I got it cleared with Marcy, and I really don't appreciate being second guest.

I'm gonna schedule, I'm gonna schedule a meeting with Carl and HR if this continues.

So they said, Who is James?

What are you talking about?

And I said, and it's funny, at this moment I was like, oh, am I actually messing with like a real person?

Maybe I'm I had a moment of of pause, but it didn't last long.

I said, Oh my bad, is this not James?

I got your text about missing work and assumed James is such a jerk.

And they said, What?

Is this not Alice?

Because again, they they they just throw out a random name.

And I'm like, yeah, this is Alice, Alice W.

Land.

Get it?

Like Alice Wonderland?

Uh do you have the wrong Alice?

And then I just threw in for some good measure.

I swear, if this is James messing with me again, I'm going straight to Carl when I get back in the office.

And they said, What's with the W?

I'm sorry, let me double check the number.

I said, That's my middle name initial.

I need to go back to sleep.

And they said, My apologies, I just checked the number, and it was indeed the wrong Alice.

Sorry for bothering you, but do we know each other?

And I was like, Oh, see?

That's a scammer.

No one's gonna have it.

Who would ask that question?

I don't know why I have your number in my contact list, L-O-L.

So I said, How could I know if we know each other if I don't know your name, James?

I'm just messing with him.

Do you know an Alice W land?

And they said, and Sophia, what about you?

Yes, I do know an Alice, but not W Land L O L.

So I said, Oh, haha, how funny.

I love it when life throws us little curveballs.

Do you like baseball?

I'm just being random at this point.

I'm just like.

And then I'm trying to like hint that I know what's going on.

I said, or maybe you're more into fishing.

Right?

And they said, lol, I love golfing and fishing also.

What about you?

And this point I'm just like trying to be as weird as I can be.

Like, I just want to I want to text things that the average person will be like, that's what run for the hills, but I know they're just trying to keep me on the line, so I'm just like messing with them having fun.

I was like, wow, we have so much in common.

This is so I'm sorry.

You'll get to see a little bit of my weird sense of humor.

I said, uh, I'm a little creeped out, honestly, but in a nice way.

Kind of like when you see a spider and you're kind of scared, but then you bend down low to get really close to it, and notice how cute it is, which is the weirdest.

Like it's just the weirdest thing to say.

I'm just trying to be as odd as possible at this point.

And they went, I think it's a beautiful misunderstanding that made me a new friend.

Honestly, you're making my day ha ha ha.

And I just, heart emoji.

That's all I did there was a little heart on the and they keep going because they're trying to get information.

They said, lol, you mentioned before that you were sick.

I hope you get well soon.

By the way, I'm a fashion designer.

What do you do?

This is so weird.

And I was like, I work in the financial fraud office at the local FBI office.

And I said, boring.

Wow, a fashion designer.

And they were like, What do you mean by fraud?

I was like, uh, lots of people get scammed these days by random people via email, text, door-to-door schemes.

You'd be amazed.

And they said, Oh, that's cool.

I love your job, haha.

Would you like to see some of my sketch?

And then I just, and then I had this moment, all right?

And I'm gonna read you, this is not, this has never happened before.

I've messed with these people before, I've never done this, but I'll explain what hit me in a second.

I said, and this came in as I was typing the their previous response came in as I was typing my next response.

Because I just said, you'd be amazed at how many people, you know, scam people.

I said, but you don't have to be one of those people, Sophia.

God created you for a noble purpose, and Jesus can help you turn things around.

LOL, what do you mean?

You aren't Sophia, and you aren't a fashion designer.

You're scamming people, but you can change.

Seriously, you were made for more than this.

Thank you.

Have a good day in all caps.

Heart emoji.

Okay?

So there you go.

Now, here's the funny thing is I I did not have like any desire or intention to like be a witness to this person.

I'm just like, you piece of work, you are scamming people, you know, you're trying to get some vulnerable person on the line, steal from them, you're a jerk, you know, whoever you are, and I'm just trying to like waste their time.

I'm just like, ha ha ha, how long can I keep this person on the line?

But there was this moment.

This moment where I'm I'm as I was responding, it hit me, this is a person that God made.

Like it really hit me really hard.

I'm like, this is a person that God made.

And he made them for so much more than this.

And I was just like, you know what?

What the heck?

So, hey, Sophia.

Like, you can change.

There, there's more.

And you know what's crazy is they're here today at our church.

I'm just joking, they're not, I have no idea if they're.

Um, no idea.

That'd be funny.

Or maybe they're really mad at me and they've turned like all the scammers on to me.

They're like, guys, this guy's our priority, he's our mission, let's bring him down.

I don't know.

But I felt very compelled in that moment to do that.

Because the reality is, as people, we all need to be reminded that we have we have a calling, that we are created for something greater.

God shows us that with Abraham, but Abraham is not an isolated case.

God is teaching us a lot about ourselves and how he sees us through Abraham.

If you look at Jesus, he's always calling people to himself and to something great.

Mark chapter 3, verse 13.

Mark 3:13

It says, afterward, Jesus went up on a mountain and called out the ones he wanted to go with him, and they came to him.

Think about that for a second.

How awesome that would be.

To be one of the ones Jesus wanted to go with him.

It says Jesus called the ones, he called out the ones that he wanted.

What an honor.

To be one of the ones Jesus wants.

Like I pick you.

In Jesus' life, we see him calling people to himself left and right.

Mark chapter 1, verse 17, Jesus calls out to them, these are the men that are fishing in their boats.

Mark 1:17

Come follow me.

I will show you how to fish for people.

I'll show you that you can do even more than this, that you can have lives that impact the men and women around you.

He calls them to something greater.

Luke chapter 18, there's this rich young man who thinks he's got it all figured out.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

And Jesus says to him, There's one thing you haven't done.

Sell all your possessions, give money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

Then come follow me.

He's calling this man to something greater.

He's saying, like, you have a lot of money, great.

You're gonna die one day, it's gonna stay here.

But I can give you a purpose that's like having treasure in heaven, something greater than even what you do on this earth.

That man didn't answer the call, but Jesus called him nonetheless.

Matthew 16, 24, and this is so key.

Jesus said to his disciples, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

See, this is where Jesus begins to radically depart from the world that we live in.

He is so different, he is so countercultural.

Sometimes in modern church, there's this great desire to kind of make Jesus look like he's just sort of one of us, and he's, and he is, he's a human being.

God became a human being, but he's completely different at the same time.

Jesus says things that no one else says in a way that no one would ever say them, because he sees things completely differently.

That's what makes him relevant to us.

He calls us into something unique, something different.

And he says in this statement anyone who wants to be my follower must deny themselves, give up their own way, take up their cross and follow me.

See, our culture, our world, likes to pretend that it offers us callings for our lives.

But it really doesn't.

There's exceptions, sometimes maybe, but but our world actually doesn't beckon us to answer a calling because our world beckons us to follow our urges and our desires.

There's a big difference between a calling and an urge.

See, an urge is a strong desire that you have to satisfy yourself.

Not all of our urges are bad, but not all of them are good either.

In fact, a lot of our greatest regrets in life were simply the result of us following an urge, a really strong desire to satisfy something that we want.

It's very rare for an urge to require you to sacrifice, invest, work really hard, commit, be dedicated, because urges are almost always shortcuts.

They're almost always like, this right now, I want it, I want it now, there it is.

And so it's so funny because our world tries to convince us that the best way to live your life is just to follow all of your urges and desires.

Do whatever you feel like doing, whenever you feel like doing it, do what makes you feel good.

You know, be you, fulfill your desires, follow your urges, and that's where you'll find meaning and happiness.

And the funny thing is, most people do that, and very few people are happy.

Because the truth is, happiness and meaning does not come by satisfying every urge that comes into our mind.

There's a big difference between an urge and a calling, because a calling is it's to something higher, it's to something greater.

To answer a call on your life, like Jesus says, it often means denying your urges, denying desires.

It's difficult.

It's a commitment, it's time, it's investment, it's sacrifice.

But the result is that you become something more.

You become something greater.

You become a blessing, not just to yourself, but like what he says to Abraham, you become a blessing to others.

You become someone whose life is blessed to be a benefit to those around you.

God calls all of us into something greater.

And I'll tell you how I know that we're all called, because sometimes we start to think maybe I've missed my calling.

Some people have a calling.

We often confuse callings with careers and jobs.

Those are just assignments and tasks.

That's the way my wife Megan describes it.

I love that.

Like it's just our task, it's just a season.

Our calling is something so much greater than that.

Our calling actually encompasses all of those things.

Your job, you're an employee or an employer, you're a student, you're a teacher, maybe a husband, a father, you're a wife, you're a mother, you're a boyfriend, you're a girlfriend, whatever relationships you have, all of those, all of those roles, all of those assignments, those are just things that can operate under the umbrella of a calling to live every aspect of our lives for something more, for something greater than ourselves.

And Jesus calls us to that, all of us.

You know why?

We're all called because we're the church.

Let me explain.

The word church is an interesting word.

The word we now have for church, it's kind of like an ugly word if you think about it, like church.

It's just like it's not a it's because it's it's from an old English, the old English language, like it was barbarians, and the old English language was very monosyllabic, like one syllable, very much just like uh.

Like that's all old England, before it was conquered by Rome, it's just barbarians kind of like making grunts, like church.

Just words like that.

And so the word church is an old English word that combined with a German word, and we get the word church from it, and that word by about a thousand years ago became associated with the Lord's house.

And so that's why we often call buildings churches.

But when Jesus used the word church, it didn't mean that at all.

They would say the word temple if they wanted to talk about a building or a synagogue.

But for example, Matthew chapter 16, Jesus asked his disciples, Who do you say I am?

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

And Simon Peter answered, You're the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

Jesus replied, You are blessed, Simon, son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you.

You did not learn this from any human being.

Now I say that you are Peter, which means rock, and upon this rock, upon this declaration that I'm the Messiah, I will build my church.

And all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

He's not talking about a building, because the word he uses doesn't mean building at all in the Greek language.

See, Jesus would have said the Greek word, ecclesia.

And if you've ever seen a Spanish church that says egglesia, it's much closer to that, ekklesia, and that's just a better sounding word than church.

Whatever.

But ekklesia, here's what it literally means.

If we translated it literally, it means those who have been called out.

Ek means out of, and the klecia part comes from a verb in Greek that means to call out.

And not to call out like, hey, I'm calling you out.

Get it together.

But to call out, to call into something greater, to become part of something bigger.

So the word church literally means when Jesus says my church, he means my people who will be the ones that I have called out.

Called out of this world, called out of the way that this world operates, called out of the things that this world values.

It's why in scriptures like 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9, we're told that we're not like that.

1 Peter 2:9

We're not like the rest of the world.

We're not supposed to be anyway.

Yes, we struggle, yes, we sin, but deep down inside, we're supposed to be different.

He says, You're a chosen people.

You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession.

As a result, you can show others the goodness of God.

See, it's like Abraham.

You've been called into something to be a blessing, not just for yourself, but to bless others, to show others the goodness of God.

For he called you out of darkness and into light.

I had no idea this morning.

I really didn't.

This is not I'm not making this up.

Because the whole calling thing is something that God really helped me hone in on just a few days ago as I was preparing for today.

I didn't know that we were going to start our morning with a song like you called my name and I ran out of that grave.

God has called us out of darkness, He's called us out of this world, and guys, this world is dark.

There's great parts of this world for sure.

There's things to celebrate.

But if you're looking for hope and you're looking for meaning and you're looking for joy, you don't usually find it by turning on the news.

Because our world is filled with darkness.

But we're not.

Because Jesus says that we have the light of the world within us if we follow him.

That we've been called to be something greater, something bigger.

We're the church.

The called-out ones, the ones that Jesus wants to call to him.

Like, think about that.

Earlier I said, man, how cool would it be to be one of the ones that Jesus wanted to call to himself?

You are.

You are one of the ones that Jesus has said, I want you, and I want to call you to me, and I want to call you to be part of this kingdom that I'm building, this movement that's going to change the world, and it's been changing the world for 2,000 years, and you're part of it because He's called you.

You have a calling on your life.

You have a purpose and a meaning that is so much more than whatever your job is or whatever your role is today.

Those things are important, those things are great, but with Jesus they become even more.

That's why 1 Corinthians chapter 10 says, Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

I had read that verse recently, one time when I was in college.

I had been going through a Bible study, and that verse had come out to me, and I worked at Chili's at the time.

Anyone else ever work at Chili's?

I've never asked this question before.

Anyone else ever?

Find me after.

We got stories to tell.

So good.

There's so many things at Chili's that have the word enchilada in them.

At least they used to.

We had like a chicken enchilada salad.

We had like, it's just enchiladas everywhere.

I don't know why, but just so many enchiladas.

Anyway, sorry, chili humor.

Me and you, you get it.

You know.

You got it.

It was actually quesadilla.

I just realized I was wrong.

It was a quesadilla.

Quesadilla explosion salad?

Quesad, like that's what is a quesadilla explosion?

No one wants that.

Alright.

My bad.

It's been a while.

So I worked at Chili's.

And it's so funny, I got to experience this little part of exactly what this is saying in the silliest way.

Like you wouldn't think of working at Chili's being like, I have a calling on my life.

I'm gonna bless other people, right?

And that's not what I was thinking most days either.

I just wanted to make as much money off tables as I could to pay for an engagement ring and get married and whatever.

But one day I'm working at Chili's and I sweep underneath my table at the end of my shift, and there's a fork.

And we had a rule, the policy I was trained to say if you ever find silverware, don't just scoop it into your trash thing and your little dustpan and throw it away, pick it up and take it and put it in the dishwasher because those are expensive, right?

But they're gross.

Like it's just gross.

It's like here's this fork that's been on the floor for who knows how long.

I'm not even sure.

It may have been there when I got there that day.

It may have been there for years.

Okay?

And I and it's just like, and there's all kinds of gross stuff, lots of chicken quesadilla, explosion gunk on the ground, and just just nastiness, and I'm like, uh, and I just I have this little mini battle with myself because I don't want to just want to throw this thing away.

It's it's a fork.

It's one fork.

It's gross.

But I had just read, do everything you do, as if you're doing it for the glory of God.

And I was like, fine.

Fine, God.

And I reach down and I pick up this fork and I hear a voice as soon as I do, what are you doing?

And I turn around and it's Michelle, my manager.

And I was like, ah, this fork was.

She's like, oh, you don't just throw those away.

And I was like, well, I mean, no, I thought we were supposed to.

She's like, oh, we are, but no one does that.

She's like, why do you do that?

She was like really on my case about it.

And I just paused.

I was like, ah, well, I'm trying to find the right, you know, words.

I'm like 18.

And I was like, well, why not?

I was like, there's this verse in Corinthians that says, do everything you do as if you're doing it for God.

And so I was gonna throw it away.

I wanted to, honestly.

I still kind of want to.

But I just take that to mean I should do everything like God is my boss.

And so she looked at me and said, You're gonna treat me like God?

And I was like, Well, I didn't really say that.

I mean, I guess.

She's like, Oh, cool.

And it's the funniest thing.

Like, from that moment on, Michelle gave me the best section that we had.

Like, I would the days I would work, it was like I got the like there are certain sections that you just they're better, and I would always get the best section.

Because she was my God.

You know, and that's what you do.

No, like, but there was something about that.

She's like, and it wasn't me, it wasn't like, oh, I'm such a good person.

No, I mean, I'd thrown stuff away plenty of times, I'd done plenty of wrong things, cut corners.

I mean, I worked at Blockbuster Video, we cut corners like crazy, okay?

That's why we we don't exist anymore.

But I say we, like I'm still like an owner, but I just worked there for a couple years.

But in that moment, what I'm saying is in that moment, God like convicted me, and I didn't think anyone would see it, but she did, and it's so funny because she would ask all kinds of questions about church, about God after that, just because I picked up a fork and put it where we're supposed to go.

Here's my point.

I have one.

Callings are not our careers, they're not our role that we have right now, they're not our seasons.

Sometimes they can be, sometimes a job change is part of a calling, that can happen.

But I think actually we get very discouraged when we only see callings like that because we often feel like my life's kind of mundane.

Most of the power of life happens in the mundane.

Most of the most important decisions you will ever make in your life will happen in the mundane seasons, in the mundane moments.

Because God uses so much of that.

He uses so much of that to bring people to himself.

You know, Peter and John, they were just fishing one day.

Mundane, boring.

And their lives were changed.

And so, whatever you do, whatever your job is, whatever your role is, I want you to know you've been called.

That's what being part of this human project is all about.

God looks at us and he says, you are called into something greater, into my church, into my kingdom, and everything you do, everything you do can have eternal value.

And so, what would it look like if you approached your season of life like that?

What would it look like if you said, you know what, I'm going to approach my life with a calling in mind?

How would you treat the people you work with?

How would you treat the people you work for?

Or the people who work for you?

If you're a student, what does that mean in terms of how you engage with the people who teach you and the other people who study alongside you?

What would it look like to actually believe that?

To actually believe that your life has purpose and meaning and calling, and every time you walk into a place, you are part of the kingdom of God, and something that you do or say in that moment may have eternal consequence for someone else's life.

That makes you so valuable, so important.

I'm not saying this just to sound cliched and cheesy.

It's not that we're all super important in and of ourselves.

We're valuable in and of ourselves because we're made in the image of God, but what makes us important is the fact that maybe we've answered a call.

We've said yes to a calling on our lives.

So know that.

You're called.

But it doesn't just stop at a calling, the second part's pretty quick, I promise.

There's also a covenant.

There's a covenant.

There's promises that are made.

Because the reality is, if you say yes to a calling, chances are you're gonna fall short of it at some point in time.

I don't know if any of you can admit that.

I mean, I'm sure you can, because we have a really great honest church.

But like, I fall short of my calling to be a follower of Jesus.

I don't do everything for the glory of God.

I do a lot of things for the glory of me.

I'm just being honest.

I don't try to.

It just happens that way.

So even if you say yes to this calling, if you recognize that there's a calling on your life that you can step into something greater, you're gonna fall short of that calling.

What happens when you fall short of your calling?

And the answer is a covenant.

God says to Abram, leave your native country, your relatives, your family, your father's family.

Go to the land that I will show you.

I'll make you into a great nation.

That's a big promise.

I'll make you, I will make you, not you, will become, I will make you into a great nation.

I will bless you and make you famous.

You'll be a blessing to others.

I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.

In verse 7, when the Lord appears to him again, he says, I will give you this land.

I'll give it to your descendants.

It's a promise.

See, a covenant, it's not a word we use a lot in English, but it's the deepest agreement that two parties can make.

It's a very deep agreement.

Where promises are made.

And it's understood that these promises are serious.

The closest we have to a covenant in terms of our relationships that can sort of signify this as marriage, or you make promises, you make vows, and they're serious, and you know on the front end, hey, breaking those vows comes with serious consequences.

And it's easy to fall short of that.

But the covenant that God makes with us is so different.

Because this covenant with Abram is a precursor to the covenant that we have with Jesus, and I'll explain.

A little bit later, in Genesis 17, God says to Abram, This is my covenant with you.

I'll make you the father of a multitude of nations.

In fact, what's more, I'm changing your name.

It will no longer be Abram, instead, it will be called Abraham.

Abraham means father of nations.

His name was Exalted Father.

He ends up having one kid, and he has that kid not with his wife, he goes outside of his marriage.

It's a really messy story.

We're going to talk about that a little bit next week.

Yay.

And uh and so God says, Oh, you think you've fulfilled this promise I gave you because you've had one child in a way that you shouldn't have had a child?

Well, how about this?

I'm gonna name you Abraham.

So now you can't even say, Oh, I'm an exalted father because I have this one child.

Your name means father of nations.

Because I'm not done blessing you.

It's amazing.

He says, Your descendants will become many nations and kings will be among them.

I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you from generation to generation.

This is an everlasting covenant.

I'll always be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

I will give this entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner to you and your descendants.

It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.

So God's making this covenant promise.

I'm gonna bless you, I'm gonna give you more.

And he tells this to Abram after Abram, who's now Abraham, messes up.

Genesis 15.

And worship team, you guys can make your way out.

Abram applied, Oh sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I'll actually possess it?

Like, how can I really be sure that you're gonna follow through on this promise?

I mean, Abram's like us.

He knows that he's already fallen far short of his calling by the time he has this conversation with God.

Yes, he's been called to something great, but it doesn't feel like he's doing something great.

He doesn't feel like he's the father of many nations, he doesn't feel like he's a blessing to other people.

If you know his story, so far it just feels like a lot of failure.

So how can I know?

And the Lord tells him, this is weird.

He says, you know what, here's how we're gonna do.

Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.

So Abraham presented all these to him and he killed them.

That's what they did back then.

They killed animals, sacrifices.

And then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side.

That's good to read right before a chili cook off.

I'm sorry, I just realized that.

My bad.

He did not, however, cut the birds in half.

Sorry, I'm so sorry, guys.

Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.

As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came over him.

And the Lord said to Abram, You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, well, they will be oppressed as slaves for four hundred years, talking about what would happen with Egypt later on.

But I'll punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.

As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.

After four generations, your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.

And this is where it gets interesting.

After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch.

This is this is the Spirit of God.

This is what it looks like to him.

Pass between the halves of the carcasses.

So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day.

Okay, what in the world is all that about?

Well, it's weird, right?

In the ancient culture that Abram's a part of, if you would make a covenant with another person, again, this is the deepest commitment that a person can make to you.

What would happen, and this would specifically happen when like a really powerful king would conquer another king and make a covenant saying, hey, now you're part of my kingdom, so you're gonna obey me and follow me, that powerful ruler, that king, the one that won, would do this same ritual.

They would take these animals, they would split them in half, they would line them up.

And they would have the weaker person, the king who lost, the king who's now subject to the other, walk between those carcasses.

So that the blood would literally get on the clothing of the person walking between them.

And that was a symbol of the covenant.

And this was this was that powerful king saying, if you break this covenant, by you walking through these carcasses, here's what this means.

May what has been done to them be done to you.

If you step out of line, if you disobey me, if you fall short of your calling, because I'm calling you to be part of my kingdom now, then you are agreeing that what I've done to these creatures, I will do to you.

That's the way it worked.

It was a brutal, barbaric culture.

But in this story, it's so weird.

Abram is not the one who passes between the carcasses.

That's what should happen, because God's the greater one.

Like God's clearly the king, he's the one who has all the promises to offer, the great nation, the children, the land.

God's gonna do all that.

And it would make sense in their culture, it would have made sense to Abram for God to say, now, Abram, I want you to split these animals in half.

Abram would have known exactly what God was telling him to do.

Okay, okay, I get where this is going.

And he's gonna split the animals, and it's gross, and it's yucky, and then God's gonna say, Now, Abram, walk between them.

So that you'll remember that I will keep my promise, but if you break it, if you step out of line, let what has been done to these be done to you.

But that's not what happens.

It's God, it's his spirit that goes between.

And it's this picture again of Jesus.

And this is God saying, Hey, here's the promise that I'm making you.

I'm calling you into something greater, I'm calling you to something more.

But Abram, if you fall short of your calling, and by the way, you will, then let what has been done to these animals be done to me.

Not to you, but to me.

I'll pay the price.

It's a picture of Jesus on the cross.

This new covenant that we have.

If you read scripture, the old covenant of Abraham has been surpassed by a new covenant that we have with Jesus.

But that was a picture of the other.

Because we have this relationship with Jesus.

We have this relationship with God where we've been called into something great.

You are part of the kingdom of God.

If you put your faith in Jesus, you are a son of God, you are a daughter of God.

He has adopted you into his family.

He's put his spirit inside of you.

You have the spirit of God inside of you, whether you feel it or not, it's there.

You have this higher purpose, this higher calling on your life.

Now everything you do can have eternal value, can help people know Jesus, lead people to God, can give you peace, and you have life everlasting that death cannot even destroy.

And all of that has happened, all of that's been promised to you.

You couldn't have done anything to earn that.

But it's not like if you step out of line, if you fall short of your calling, then it's all gone.

Because you deserve some type of punishment, because Jesus has already paid the price for the covenant that we're in.

Just like we see with Abram, let what has been done to these be done to him.

It's this picture of Jesus.

And so we're gonna take Lord's Supper as we wrap up.

And uh man, just like a real professional champ, totally forgot to bring my Lord's Supper cup with me.

So I need help.

You got one?

Oh let's hear it for Arthur.

I don't want yours, James.

I want Arthur's.

Arthur, do you have another one close by?

Oh, wow.

You guys may not know this.

Arthur's a magician, like legit, that's what he does for a living.

I knew he'd have another one.

Magic.

I knew it.

So listen, we take this little meal every single week together.

And if you're new and you didn't grab one of these when you came in, feel free.

You're not going to mess anything up by getting up right now.

There's so many layers of meaning to this little meal, but guys, think about this in terms of covenant.

This promise that God, God has made you promises.

Promises that may seem too good to be true, to give you purpose, to give you hope, to bring you into something greater than yourself, to bless you so that you can be a blessing to others.

You're part of God's kingdom, his family, his spirit lives within you.

You have life in heaven to look forward to.

That's an amazing promise.

That's a promise.

That's a covenant that's part of your calling.

What happens if you fall short?

What happens if you mess up?

What happens if you don't live up to the calling?

Don't worry about it.

What happens?

It's already happened.

Because the price has already been paid for your failure.

Jesus died.

Because God's covenant, He said, look, if you make a if you mess up, if you make a mistake, let what has been done to these be done to me.

Not the other way around.

So every time we take this, it's this reminder that even when we fall short of the calling on our lives, God does not.

Every single time that we mess up, we can say, God, thank you, that the price for my failure has already been paid.

So with that in mind, let's pray for this bread.

Father, thank you for this piece of bread.

Thank you for what it means.

You have a covenant love for us, a covenant commitment and relationship with us.

And it's a covenant, Lord, that covers our failures, it covers our mistakes, that when we fall short of our calling, when we fall short of being that royal priesthood, that holy nation, when we fall short of being the light of the world, because we get so caught up in our own stuff, we don't have to worry about missing the promises that you've given us, Lord, because you pay the price on our behalf.

Thank you, Jesus, for that.

Let's take the bread.

Let's thank him for this juice.

This juice represents your blood, Jesus, and we thank you for shedding your blood on our behalf.

Because we do fall short.

I fall short so often, daily, of the calling that you've put on my life.

There's just times, Lord, where I care more about what I desire and want.

There's times where I follow my own urges instead of the calling that you've placed on me.

Sometimes, Lord, I'm even tempted to believe that when I mess up, I've missed it.

But that's not true.

Because you died on the cross and shed your blood to seal your covenant with me and with everyone else.

So it's not about our performance, it's not about our track record, it's not like a batting average or something like that, Lord.

That's not how you measure us.

You died, you shed your blood to pay the price for our failure.

And you call us to something greater, knowing that we will fail.

And the price has already been paid.

Lord, thank you for that.

Let's take the juice.