James Meehan - Finding Direction in Your Life
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So what are you gonna do with your life? Like what are you gonna do after you graduate high school? Are you gonna go to college or straight into the workforce? Are you gonna pursue a career in ministry? Do you think that you're going to get married someday or not? Are you gonna stay home or are you going to move away? Questions like these are so important because how we answer them will determine the direction of our lives, which is what makes these questions so scary. Because like none of us want to make the wrong choice, but we're not always sure what the right choice is.
And so if you're like many people, you can find yourself paralyzed, so afraid that you're gonna make the wrong choice, that you end up making no choice whatsoever, which is why I'm so glad that you are here for Switch listening to this message Because today and over the course of the next several weeks, we are going to help you discover how to find and fulfill your calling, your God-given purpose so that you can live free from the anxiety of trying to figure out your future and you can live with the confidence that God can use you, that God will use you and he is with you every step of the way.
In Ephesians chapter 4:1, we read this from the apostle Paul, he says that, "Therefore I a prisoner for serving the Lord beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling. For you have been called by God". Lead a life worthy of your calling because you have been called by God which sounds awesome. But what if you don't actually know what your calling is? Like, how do you lead a life worthy of your calling if you don't know your calling? That's where many people are right now. Like there are some of you that are asking that exact question. And so what we're gonna do today is we're going to first define what the word calling means, because that by itself is gonna clear up a ton of the confusion.
And then what we're gonna do is we're gonna lay out the map for the next several weeks and show what it is that we can do today and in the weeks to come to discover our calling. So what is your calling? Your calling consists of your identity. That's who you are, your purpose, what you are made to do and your assignment, how you do it. Your calling is more than just what you do for a living. It is who you are, your identity, it's what you're made to do, your purpose, and it is how you do it, your assignment. All three of those ingredients are essential to helping you figure out who you are, what you're made to do, and how you're supposed to do it. Because like if you're missing one of those ingredients, I'm telling you you're missing a lot.
So this week we're gonna talk about who you are. Next week is all about what you're made to do and then in the final week of the series, we're gonna talk about your assignment, how you do it. Now, I know speaking from experience that this understanding of calling has been a game changer for me because for so many of my teenage years I had no idea what I was supposed to do with my life. Like honestly, the thing I cared most about was making money and being happy, which by themselves aren't necessarily bad things, like they're not the worst, but there is so much more that God wants for you than just that. There was so much more that God wanted for me than just making money and being happy.
And it wasn't until God got a hold of me that I began to realize how much more I was made for. Because it's when I met Jesus that I discovered who God is and who I am as his child, as his follower, as the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. And the more I got to know God and the more I got to understand who he says I am, the more I realized that I was placed on this earth to love him with all that I am and to love others the way that He has loved me. And eventually this led to me discovering the right assignment for me to fulfill that purpose. Like I literally started as an assistant manager at an ice cream shop where I was volunteering in my spare time at Life Church. And then I had a conversation with my youth pastor who told me about the Life Church internship.
And so I signed up to do the summer internship because that felt like a better place for me to accomplish my purpose than selling ice cream in a job that I really did not like and I was only doing to pay the bills. That internship led to another internship, which led to me getting hired on as an associate youth pastor at one of our Life Church locations in Tulsa, eventually becoming a lead youth pastor here in the Oklahoma City area, until now where I have been for the last four years is being the guy who gets to contribute to the content for all of Switch, the ministry that God used to change my life and help me discover who I really am. When I met Jesus, he showed me who I am. He showed me what I'm made to do and he has led me along this path of discovering how I'm supposed to do it. And I know that God wants to do the same for you.
So this week, part one of the series, we're talking about your identity, who you are. Like I said, next week we're gonna talk about your capital P purpose, and in the week after that we're learning what is our assignment? How do we find the best assignment for us? So going back to this scripture we read, Ephesians chapter 4:1. Paul says, "Therefore, I a prisoner for serving the Lord beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God". If you're taking notes, write this down because this is the main point of our message today. Finding your calling starts with knowing who God is and trusting who he says you are. Finding your calling starts with knowing who God is and trusting who he says you are. Whether we like it or not, as human beings like we are designed to get our sense of who we are from our relationships.
Our relationships define who we are more than anything else in our lives. This is why for so many people like who they see themselves as is a result of who their parents are and their relationship to them. Like either you're the good kid or the not so good kid. For a lot of people, they get their identity from their friendships. Like if you've got a lot of really great and positive friendships that shapes how you see yourself. If you don't, if your friendships are negative or you don't even have 'em to begin with, that is gonna shape how you see yourself. For a lot of people, like they get their identity from the celebrities that they look up to, whether artists or athletes, politicians or pastors, and they look to them to figure out who they are. For a lot of people, they look to their dating relationships, whether they're single or dating, whether they wanna be dating or not, and they figure out this is who I am.
Our relationships define who we are more than just about anything else in our lives. And the thing is, is like that's not actually a defect in the human condition. It is by design. Like you were created by God to receive your identity from him. Like don't get me wrong, it can be really dysfunctional when we look to other relationships rather than our relationship with God. This is why it's so important for us to begin with understanding who God is and discovering who we are in relationship to him. Paul says that you have been called by God and here's what's so important. When Paul says God, he's talking about the Trinity. He's talking about a God who is three and one.
What is the Trinity? The Trinity is three persons, God, the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit who are united in one being. Trinity is literally a word that means three plus unity, three and one. That's what Paul is talking about when he says God. He's describing a God who is the Father, that once what's best for his kids, he's describing a God who is the Son, who became a human being named Jesus, who sacrificed himself to save us from our sins. He's describing the Holy Spirit that fills us when we become followers of Jesus and gives us the power to do things that we cannot do on our own. When Paul talks about God, that's who he's talking about. And this matters because the fullness of who you are can only be found in the fullness of who God is, as Father, Son and Spirit.
As my brother-in-law, the youth pastor down at Life Church Moore, Sam likes to say, "Your identity is found in the Trinity". Your identity as a human being, the truest part of you is found in the Trinity, the fullness of who God is. So what we're gonna do today is we're gonna look at who God is as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit so that we can know who we are in relation to him. Because until we know who we are, we're never gonna be able to figure out what to do. So who is God? God is the Father and we are his children. God is the Father and we are his children. Ephesians chapter 1:5, we read that "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".
When you choose to follow Jesus, you are adopted into the family of God. This is something that he wanted to do and it brings him so much joy to call you his child. When my wife and I welcomed our son Jase, into the world, like it was one of the best moments of our lives because we got to welcome in a new addition to our family, our son, who we love, not because of what he does and doesn't do. Like not because he's super well-behaved that day in daycare because you know he isn't always right. Like not because he went to the bathroom all by himself in the toilet and didn't leave a super stinky diaper that I had to change, because we're still working on that. Not because he ate his dinner without complaining and no food ended up on the floor because that actually hasn't happened yet.
Someday I believe it will, but our love for him isn't based on what he does or doesn't do. It's based on the fact that he's our kid and we are his parents. And let me tell you something, God's love for you is so much more than the love I could ever have for my son. God's love for you is not based on what you do or don't do. It's based on who he is and who he says you are. His love is unconditional. That means he loves you no matter what with no strings attached. This is who you are. God is the Father and we are his children. The second thing you need to know is that God is the Son and we are his followers. God is the Son and we are his followers. Ephesians 5:2 tells us "To live a life filled with love following the example of Christ, he loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God".
Jesus loves you so much that he willingly died on the cross for you to bring us back to God. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to. This is what's so beautiful about the gospel, is that the good news isn't based on whether we've done enough to earn it or deserve it because we never could. The good news is based on God's love for us. You see, the thing about love, especially when it comes to the Bible, is that love is so much more than just like positive thinking or strong feelings. Love is about what we do and how we live. And when we look at the example of Jesus, we see a God who loved us enough to leave heaven, to enter history, to become a slave and die on the cross for our sake. This is how much Jesus loves you. Following Jesus and following his example.
Being his follower is not the same as following your favorite Instagram influencer, your favorite TikToker or your favorite Twitch streamer. That type of following is very distant and it doesn't require a lot of you. Following Jesus is meant to be something that we do up close. It's something we do because of his love for us and our love for him. Like we don't just like the things we like, we commit ourselves to following him because of what he has done for us. God is the Son and we are his followers. Following Jesus isn't just something we do, followers of Jesus is who we are. That activity matters, but at the foundation of it is our identity.
So who is God? God is the Father and we are his children. God is the Son and we are his followers. And finally, God is the Spirit and we are his dwelling place. God is the Spirit and we are his dwelling place. Ephesians 3:16, Paul is praying that "From God's glorious, unlimited resources that he would empower us with inner strength through His spirit". When we begin to follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God the Spirit fills us with life. He gives us the ability to do things that we could not do before. He helps us to know God personally and intimately. He gives us the ability to pray when we have no idea what we're supposed to say. And he begins the process of transforming us from the inside out into people of love.
And I am so grateful for the way the Holy Spirit has been working in me to make me more of who I'm meant to be and less of who I used to be. Because before I started following Jesus, like let me tell you, I was a lot more selfish. I was a lot more foolish, like I was not the person I needed to be. And little by little, the Spirit of God inside of me has been making me more loving, more joyful, more kind, more patient, more caring, more self-controlled so that I can do and be who He's made me to be. He's helping me to know who he is more truly and fully than I ever thought possible. And I'm telling you, the Holy Spirit wants to do the same for you. All you have to do is ask because the empowering presence of God, God, the Holy Spirit is inside of you and he wants to help you do and be all that God has made you to be because God is the spirit and we are his dwelling place.
This is who we are because of who God is. God is the Father and we are his children. God is the Son and we are his followers. God is the spirit and we are his dwelling place. So what now? Like what do we do from here? 'Cause like all of that is really cool and it's awesome, but what does that change? Like how do we take this idea and apply it to our lives so that we can actually move forward in our faith? That is a wonderful question. Here's the answer. The answer is we've got to get the truth in and live the truth out. We have to get the truth in and live the truth out because it is one thing to hear that this is who you are, It's another thing to really believe that this is who you are and it is another thing else to actually live in alignment with what you say you believe.
This is why it matters that we don't just hear these words, but we actually get the truth of God deep enough in us that we believe it until we live it. Get the truth in that God is the Father and we are his children by memorizing Ephesians chapter 1:5. Get the truth in that God is the Son and live the truth out that we are His followers by memorizing Ephesians 5:2. Get the truth in that God is the Spirit and we are his dwelling place by getting that truth deep enough inside you by memorizing Ephesians 3:16. Don't worry, scan that QR code. It's gonna have the points. It's gonna have the scriptures saved as a wallpaper on your phone so that when you open up your phone, you can be reminded of who you are, so much that you can commit it to memory.
This is why we memorize scripture, not just so that we can add these verses to the list of things that we say that we know, but so that the truth of God will bury itself deep enough in our heart, that it begins to produce fruit to change us from the inside out so that we believe it and we live it. Scan that QR code to take you to that wallpaper. I think it's gonna be a really helpful practice for you to get your identity anchored in who God is and who he says you are. Now, maybe the idea of memorizing scripture is totally new to you, like you've never actually heard it before. Don't worry, we've wrote a Bible plan just for you. It's called Becoming Like Jesus Scripture Memorization.
And this is a two week Bible plan that you can start reading with your small group that's gonna show you step by step, one day at a time how to actually practice scripture memorization so that you're not just kind of like blankly opening your phone and looking at it and not actually doing it with real intention or direction. We wanna show you how to do it well so that you can get this foundational element of your calling in place because we're going to build on this in the weeks to come. Because finding your calling, it starts with knowing who God is and trusting who he says you are. That's what we're talking about this week.
Next week we're gonna discover what our purpose is, our capital P purpose, the reason God made us as human beings. And then in two weeks we're gonna figure out how to identify the best assignment for us, the best way that we can live out that purpose. But this right here, what we're talking about today, is step one because your calling includes all of the things that most of us think that it includes. Like what are we gonna do after high school, where we're gonna work, whether we're gonna get married, where we're gonna live, all of that stuff is included in it, but your calling is more than just those things. Your calling is your identity. It's who you are because of who God is. It's your purpose, the reason God placed you on this earth, and it is your assignment, the way that you live out that purpose.
Finding your calling, it starts with knowing who God is and who he says you are. And God is a loving Father who wants what's best for his kids. He wants what's best for you. God is the Son, Jesus, who became a human being, who became one of us, so that through his death and resurrection we could become one with him. And he calls us his followers. God is the Spirit, the empowering presence of God that fills us when we believe in Jesus and gives us the power to do things that we could not do before. To know God fully, deeply, and intimately. To know how to pray when we have no idea what to say and to change us from the inside out into people of love. This is who you are because of who Jesus is. So this is part one. Like I said, next week we're continuing with part two of our series, the Calling, How to Discover Your God-Given Purpose.
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that you have called us to be your people, that you have called us to a purpose that is bigger than ourselves. God, I pray that every single one of us would trust who you say we are, that we would be committed to getting that truth in us and living the truth out in the way that we talk, in the way that we interact with other people, in the way that we go about our every single day, so that our identity will inform our activity, and our activity will reinforce the identity that you have given us. For all this in Jesus' name. Amen.