Well get back to that later.

I want you to think of a friend who loves you so much they would sacrifice their own life in order to save yours… What if that person some day does sacrifice their life for you? Wouldn’t you want to tell everybody about what that person did for you?….. Well stop thinking because someone already did. In fact he didn’t just die for you. But for every single person on this planet… Well you have probably already guessed this but that person is Jesus Christ. Now lets think about this for a minute. Probably the best friend you could ever have was mocked, spit on, brutally flogged and whipped, then died a slow, torturous, painful death hanging on a cross for you………… Well why aren’t we telling anyone? We should be running through the streets with a megaphone telling people what he did! But instead we sit at home watching TV or talking to people on IM’s or playing video games. I’m not saying those things are bad or we shouldn’t enjoy ourselves once in a while. But if you’re not doing anything to tell people about Gods mercy, then as a Christian your useless!

Tonight I’m going to talk to you about Our calling as a Christian and how we can successfully live up to that calling given to us by God.

Every Christian has a different story on how they were saved. Some people got saved when they were a little kid. Some got saved in high school or college. Some got saved after they were married and had kids. Some were in a life of crime and drugs when they got saved. And some were saved just in time to be able to go up to heaven on their deathbed.

As for me I was only a little kid about four years old. I have been raised in a Christian home and gone to church all my life so it was natural that I wanted to know more about Jesus and why He did what He did for me. So one day I asked my mom all these questions about being a Christian and my mom of course gladly answered all of them before asking me if I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart. Well there I was four years old and already signed up to fight in Gods army. For many years after that I continued to go to church and Sunday school. I went to all the church activities and all that fun stuff. But my faith didn’t make itself real to me until about a year ago. I was starting to have doubts in my mind weather or not God really existed. And if he did then how come he never talks to me like everyone else?……….

Then last year while I was laying in bed one night I was thinking about what my pastor was talking about the last Sunday about dedicating our lives to God to use us for his glory. While I was thinking something in my mind clicked….. I figured out that being a Christian is more than going to church and reading your bible. That’s only a small part of it.

Gods purpose for us is to tell others about his glory and how he died for us so that we may live. Well after I thought about it I dicided to say a little prayer dedicating my life to God so he may use me through my talents for His glory.

Jesus says in Mark 16:15 - Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

As christians our purpose is to tell others about Gods glory. But if we claim to be a christian and don’t read our bible, pray, or have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ then how are we supposed to tell others about him if we know nothing about him?

Have you ever had to do a book report on a book you were supposed to read but didn’t? I doesn’t work! Why? Because you have no clue what that book was about! It’s the same thing when we don’t read our bible and pray. If you don’t have a relationship with God then your not a true christian and therefore you can’t be fruitful in witnessing to people.

How Can we become a “better” christian?

Well first off read your bible. Most of you have been doing that with this chart, and that’s great! But its not enough. We need to talk to God on a regular basis. Did you become friends with your best friend by not talking to them? No. In order to get to know someone you need to talk to them.

You maybe thinking, “well how come He never talks to me? You know I tried talking to Him but he never answers.” …

Well what do u think is going to happen? What, do you think a loud deep voice is going to come out of heaven? No! God doesn’t do that. He will talk to you through different ways. I cant tell you how exactly he will talk to you. But if you continue to read your bible and pray to Him every day, you will start growing as a christian. And pretty soon you recognize when God is trying to tell you something.

Haven’t you ever heard the expression God works in mysterious ways?

Well, how else can I be a “better” christian? Thankfully God gave us his manual to life, the bible. And its got all kinds of great stuff we should know in there. So those of you who have their bibles go ahead and turn to 2 Peter 1: 4-11 and lets see how we can be “better” and more fruitful as a christian.

(Read 2 Peter 1:4-11)

Our faith must be more than just believing in God. It must result in action, growth in christian character, and the practice of moral discipline. Because without these things your faith in God will be useless and unfruitful. It will be hard work to keep a continual practice of this. And its not optional, we are required to do these things as Christians. And its not a checklist ether. “Oh I got self- control down, time to move on to the next one.” No! we are to practice these things 24-7!

Diligence, moral excellence, knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. If you practice these things your faith and christian character will grow.

Our faith must go beyond what we believe, it must become a dynamic part of who we are and all that we do, resulting in good fruit and spiritual maturity. Salvation does not depend on good works, but results in good works. A person who claims to be saved while remaining unchanged does not understand faith or what God has done for him or her.

Well what happens if I don’t do these things?

Here I have a cymbal. And before this was a cymbal it was nothing but a chunk of metal. But then it was melted down, then molded into a round disc. After that it was shaped into this dome like shape so it can produce a ringing sound. After that it gets hammered on both sides to shape it some more. Then it gets hammered once more just to make sure its perfect. After that it gets cleaned and polished. Then after all of these steps and more it gets the label slapped on it and then sent out to be to be used by the musician that bought it.

When you get saved you become something new. A christian. But it takes time to get to a point in our relationship with God to know enough about Him to serve Him. So over time, like a cymbal, God molds us and shapes us into a beautiful crystal clear sounding instrument for His glory. We become Gods instrument with his label to tell others of His love and His mercy.

But if you stray from God and stop doing the simple things like reading your bible and praying you become damaged. And like a cymbal when used incorrectly, we start forming cracks. Then we start getting sucked into worldly things like lying, stealing, pornography, and drugs, and the cracks start to grow. And pretty soon we become useless. God can’t use you as an instrument any more. You have destroyed the beautiful sound you once had.

It says in 1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

If we start straying from God, and get into worldly things He can’t use us any more. We cant glorify Gods name if our lives are so messed up. That’s why its so important to continue to read our bible and pray and to do all the things it talks about in 2 Peter 1:4-11.

But because God is such an awesome God we can seek His forgiveness and He will repair those cracks we made in our lives. It takes time and hard work. But its worth it.

You may think “Oh come on, if someone does drugs and all that stuff it would be impossible for that person to change.”

Anything is possible with God. God could save the most drugged up, untruthful, messed up person you know!

For example, one of my best friends dad used to be a drug dealer.He made tons of money, he had cars, girls, and even bodyguards. But his life was messed up. Well there’s a lot more to it that I don’t remember, but to make a long story short he got saved. And eventually he got married and had two kids. He also became the pastor of the church I went to. He was damaged but God repaird him and now Gods using him for His glory bringing people to Christ.

Gods purpose for us is to go out into all the world and tell people of his Glory. But I don’t want you to think that we should all become preachers or anything like that. You can be a witness to people with any job you get. Whether you’re a lawyer, a cop, a cook, or (name one of the jobs stated earlier). No matter what you do you can use it to tell people about Gods love and mercy.

I’m just about done but before I wrap it up here I just want to leave you with two verses in 2 Timothy 1:8-9. it says - therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.

Remember, you can be a beautiful sounding instrument for Gods glory.

But go astray from God and you become damaged, cracked, and useless.

God is the musician, we are just His instrument. And lets do our best to keep our sound clean.

So yup thats the message I gave the other week at youth group.. Tell me what u think