James Meehan - You're Made for Greater Things

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How many of you know that you are actually far more than you might think you are? For me, when I was growing up, I always wanted to make a difference. I wanted to be seen as significant. I did not want to be average. And it could be because I watched so many Disney movies as a kid that I absolutely bought into the idea that if you just chase after your dreams hard enough and believe in it deep enough, then it will all come true, and everything will be amazing. But then like my freshman year of high school, when I went to a new school, and I really thought everything was gonna be amazing, I showed up on day one and it was not.

I wasn't as nearly as outgoing as I wished that I was and I had a much harder time making friends than I thought that I would. And those first few months in this new school, really difficult because I was trying to find my place and my people. But then everything changed one day at lunch when this wrestler, who's actually pretty good, started talking trash about my sister. So I beat the tar out of this kid. And even though he was pretty tough, I tossed him around because little did he know I had been training mixed martial arts.

So I knew a little bit of what I was doing. And from that moment on, everything changed because I earned the reputation of being a fighter. Everybody knew my name. They knew that I could fight, and I loved the way that that made me feel. It made me feel really, really bad to the bone, like I was significant, like people knew who I was and wanted to be my friend, and that reputation felt really good until it didn't. Because once I left high school, being known as the fighter wasn't actually that cool. Actually getting into fights outside of high school is illegal, so I had to stop doing that.

And it didn't take long for me to realize that that reputation, while it felt good for a little bit, was not at all the purpose, the calling, the identity that God had in store for me. And maybe there are some of you right now where sitting in your Switch, you're starting to recognize that, for a while, being a stud on your sports team was enough, but maybe it's not anymore. Or maybe, for you, being that awesome student who gets straight A's has felt really, really good, but now you're starting to wonder if there's actually more to you than the grades that you make. Or maybe you're one of those people where you just love gaming with your friends.

And for right now, that seems like enough, but every once in a while you think and maybe you even dream about your life being about something bigger than yourself. The thing for me is it took me a little bit after high school to discover the more that I was made for, and it didn't actually become clear to me until Jesus got ahold of me. And that's when I realized that my life is not my own, that I am meant to be a part of something bigger and better than myself, that all of the stuff I had known up until that point was so limited, because what Jesus started to show me is the truth that God is real, God is good, God loves you, and He cares about the details of your life.

Jesus started to show me that my life is more than what I thought it was. And I believe that tonight there are many of you who will discover the same truth, that you are more than you think you are. That's why in tonight's message, we're gonna look at this passage of scripture found in Matthew chapter five. This is a part of the greatest sermon ever preached. It's called the Sermon on the Mount. And in the previous verses, Jesus begins the sermon by announcing a series of nine blessings. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Over and over again, He is announcing the good news that before you do anything to earn it or deserve it, you are loved by God.

And then He moves into the next part of this sermon where He tells us who we are when we follow Him. That's why the main point of this message, if you are taking notes, is this, that Jesus is inviting us to become who he is and do what He does. Jesus is inviting us to become who he is and do what he does.

That's why in Matthew 5:14, He says this, that you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. Did you know that the thing that makes you you is not the stuff you like and don't like? It's not the stuff you do and don't do. It's not the friends you hang out with. It's not the family name that you carry. It's not the way that you identify sexually. It is not about the hobbies you partake in. The thing that makes you you more than anything else is what Jesus says about you. And when you choose to follow Him, He says that you are the salt of the earth.

Now, if you're wondering what that means, you are probably not alone because this is like this interesting metaphor that seems a little bit strange to us. But in Jesus' day, the entire community He was a part of, they were all farmers. And so when he says, "You are the salt of the earth," all of the people listening would've understood, "Oh yeah, he's talking about the salt that we mix in with a bunch of muck and manure to create fertilizer". It is the salt of the land. It's this fertilizing agent that they would put into patches of land that were dead and barren to bring life and growth.

And so when Jesus says that you are the salt of the earth, what He's saying is that even though you may be surrounded by darkness, you are meant to bring life and growth wherever you go, because Jesus came to do exactly that for us, and He's inviting us to become who He is and do what He does. Now, Kiko, he started coming to Switch a few years ago, and when he first started coming, he did not take it that seriously. He kind of was doing the church thing, but he really wasn't in it to pursue God with his whole heart. And it was during that time that he made a series of not great decisions.

Instead of practicing sexual integrity in his previous dating relationship, he allowed his lustful desires to take him too far. Instead of actually practicing self-control and loving the people closest to him, he had a really short fuse and he would blow up on his friends and his family members. Then everything changed after a hard conversation with his youth pastor and a radical encounter with Jesus, when Kiko decided to take his faith seriously. And that was when Jesus made him someone new and better than he could ever be on his own.

Now, the tricky part of this though for Kiko was that even though God had made him new, that he was no longer defined by the sin and the shame of his past, but defined by God's love for him, was because of the decisions that he had made, and because of the people that he had hurt. There were a lot of people who regularly reminded him of who he used to be, and so he had to fight to remember who Jesus says he is. And the thing that I hope you will recognize is that the process of us living into and growing into who Jesus says we are is not something that happens overnight. He will make you new like that, but growing into that new creation that He says you are, it takes time. It's kinda like when you turn 18.

On that day, you are legally an adult, but it will take you a lifetime to become the mature and responsible man or woman that God wants you to be. It changes in a moment, but it takes a lifetime to grow into it. Thankfully, Kiko did not back down. He continued to pursue God. He kept trying his best to grow in his faith. And little by little, over time, the work that God had done on the inside of Kiko started to become visible on the outside, so that the people he had hurt, the people who were regularly reminding him of who he used to be, started to see him for who he is now.

And this opened the door for a lot of those very same people, friends and family and classmates, to get to know Jesus, to show up to church with Kiko, to discover the God who had transformed him so radically for themselves. So now Kiko is bringing life and growth where there used to be death and darkness. And what I need you to hear is that when you choose to follow Jesus, the most true thing about you is not what others say about you. It's who Jesus says you are. That's why if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down, that you are not who others say you are. You are who Jesus says you are. And Jesus, he says that you are the salt of the earth, that your life is meant to bring life and growth to the places around you.

But then he goes on in the next verse to say this, that you are the light of the world, that a town built on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. Jesus is inviting us to become who He is and to do what He does. And Jesus is the light who shines in the darkness, and He brings hope to the world, and He is inviting us to become the very same thing. There's this other passage in the Bible, Mark chapter five, where Jesus shows up on this shore where there is a dude who had been demon possessed, and this guy had set up shop in a graveyard.

So his life is filled with demons and he is living in a graveyard, darkness and death is all around, but then the light of Jesus shines in his life and breaks through the darkness. The demons go packing. This man's mind is healed, and he is so radically transformed by Jesus that all of the people around him are terrified because they have never seen a change like that before. It's kind of like if you've just been in the dark for a really long time, and then a bright light comes on. For a moment, it is disorienting because it's a little bit blinding, and that's what these people were experiencing, the light of Jesus shining into the darkness of this man who had been possessed by demons and literally made his home in a graveyard.

And the people are so uncomfortable with what Jesus is doing that they beg him to leave. So Jesus humbly agrees to their request. As He's getting into the boat with his followers, the dude who had just been demon possessed asks Him, "Hey, you just set me free. These people don't like me. Can I come with you"? And Jesus says no. He says, "I actually want you to stay here. I want you to go to your own home and tell everyone the story of how God has set you free, how God has had mercy on you". Because a light is not meant to be hidden under a bowl. It is meant to be put on a stand so that everyone can see.

This is why Jesus said, "Hey, I'm putting my light in you and I want you to shine it everywhere because I'm going this way and I need my light that way". And there are some of you right now who I need you to hear this, that the same light that Jesus shone into his life, he wants to shine into your life because maybe right now you feel hopeless. Jesus came to bring you hope. Maybe you feel like you are all alone, like nobody is there for you. Jesus promises never to leave you or to forsake you. Maybe you feel like nobody knows your name or what you're going through, but Jesus, when He calls to you, He calls you by name, and he's going to be there with you every step of the way.

Maybe you feel like there is no light, but Jesus is the light. He shines in the darkness and He brings hope to the world. He's inviting you right now to become who He is and to do what He does, to become salt that brings life and growth where things are dead and barren, to be light that pushes back the darkness and brings hope where there is no hope. And then the very next verse, verse 16, Jesus goes on to say, "So in the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. You are the salt of the earth and you're the light of the world".

So I've got an assignment for you, two things. Thing number one, what I need you to do is to stay salty by staying here. And thing number two, I need you to shine your light by doing good. Stay salty by staying here. Shine your light by doing good. This is why we are partnering with Stay Here, an organization dedicated to fighting against the mental health crisis in your generation, to fighting against the epidemic of suicidality in your generation. Because within your generation, the number two cause of death is suicide, and that is not okay. It's not okay with me. It better not be okay with you, and it is not okay with God. He wants us to do something about it.

So we are joining forces with this incredible organization. We are rallying together across our churches to put an end to suicide in your generation. And so right now, there is a QR code on the screen that I need you to scan. Because for some of you, the thing that you need most is hope because you have been wrestling with whether or not it is worth it for you to keep living. And if you go to that QR code, it's gonna take you to a place where you can talk to a hope coach, a trained person who is ready right now to help you choose life because God wants to help you see that life is worth living.

And within that same link, there's another place where I want all of us, every single one of us, at all of our churches to take the suicide prevention training that Stay Here offers so that we can learn to ask the right questions, so that in our conversations, we can convince our friends and our family and our classmates to choose life instead of death, and we can help them take action to move from despair to hope because all of this is worth fighting for. So much so that Jesus saw it as worth dying for. This is why He came, so that we might have life and life to the full.

So if you right now are hurting and you need hope, Jesus came for you. If you right now want to make a difference because you are burdened by the struggles of the people around you, Jesus wants to use you to shine your light into the darkness. Now, if you are hurting, I also want you, before you leave Switch tonight, to talk to your small group leader. Talk to your youth pastor. Do not leave without telling somebody about what you're going through, because we love you and we wanna help you make the choice to stay here.

So stay salty by staying here and shine your light by doing good, because Jesus, Jesus is inviting you. He's inviting you to become who He is and to do what He does because you are the salt of the earth, and you are the light of the world. So let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify God when you step into your identity, when you live out your purpose, Jesus will use you, and the things that you do to bring glory to God and to literally save lives.

And so Lord Jesus, we come before you right now, so grateful for the example you have given to us, for the power that is in your name, the name that is above every name, for the hope that you brought into the world, that you have given to us. Let us take seriously the calling to become who you are and do what you do, to trust that every word you say is true, and to believe that you can and you will use us to make a difference. I pray that we would believe that your love for us goes deeper and further than any of the pain that we might be feeling, and that you want to use us to help others find freedom and life in you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.