Micah 6:6-8
Ephesians 2:8–10
“Connected to Our Truest Selves: Created on Purpose”
Preached Sunday, November 8, 2026
I am going to give you a peak behind the curtain for a moment. We are in the middle of a sermon series called “Connected: Growing in Grace. Living Generously.” This is a preaching resource published by The Greater New Jersey Conference of the United Methodist Church to help pastors and churches grow in their faith during the Stewardship season. The pastor, aka me, has an outline for the sermon that includes the Scripture, general points to make, and the suggested flow of the sermon. Now - I want to make it clear, when I use a resource like this - the words you hear are 100 percent mine. The ideas you hear are mine. I take this resource, I use it, I adapt it, I think through it, I pray about it - and I present you my version of it.
So - with that being said, the following prompts were three of the suggested intro topics for this sermon:
“Tell about a season when achievement, productivity, reputation, or comparison began to define you.”
“What accomplishment once felt central to your identity but could not answer the deeper question, 'Who am I?'”
“Share a moment when grace reminded you that you were loved before you performed and called before you felt ready.”
Friends, when I read these prompts, I felt personally attacked. Because this is something I consistently struggle with.
A “season” when achievement, productivity, reputation, or comparison began to define you??? I thought - when have I not been in that season??? When do I not struggle with everything I've done - or not done - defining my identity? How often do I think I am not worthy of love if I don't perform well? If I'm not the best pastor, mom, wife, friend, person that I can be?
This is my constant spiritual struggle - and it is a spiritual struggle. And I do spend time in prayer and conversation - with God, with a spiritual director, with loved ones - to try and center myself in God - not what I achieve or produce, not what people think of me, not what I see others doing that I am measuring up to or not. As a way to remind myself to stay centered in God, sometime in my last decade of ministry, I have begun talking about myself as a person of three covenants - the first covenant is the covenant of my Baptism in which God calls me a beloved child of God - period. Before I have done anything to ”earn” that title. The second covenant is the covenant of my marriage - and I really broaden that to include not just my spouse but my children, extended family, and closest friends - those who love me and I love in return, relationships not built upon what we produce but how we love one another. The third covenant is the covenant of my ordination - and this is important to me - it is one of the three main covenants of my life and I strive to be faithful to God and the call that has been placed upon my life - but it is third on purpose, with the other two coming before it. Because in ministry, and that's my job - everyone has an opinion of you - and whether you are doing enough, producing enough, are enough - doing better or worse than another pastor - either a predecessor or the pastor down the road…even with this sermon introduction, I thought, ”If I give them a peak behind the curtain, tell them I'm using a resource, will they think less of me?” And I'm not saying all this to get assurance from all of you - I need to seek my assurance from God and God alone first. I say it to not only give you a peak behind the curtain of how the sermon is made, but a peak behind the curtain as to what I struggle with spiritually. And so I tell myself, over and over again, what my three covenants are, that my identity in God comes first. That I am loved no matter what I produce.
And also, I am being open and vulnerable with you all today, because I do not think I am alone in this struggle, this spiritual struggle. It plagues us no matter what field we work in - because it's the message that our world is constantly telling us:
"Consumer culture says we are what we own. Achievement culture says we are what we accomplish. Comparison culture says we are what others think.” This message is shared with us every day - through our jobs, through the TV, through news, through ads, through scrolling social media and only seeing people's polished highlights of their lives. And unfortunately, for some people it's also communicated through those who should love them unconditionally - parents or spouses, family members or loved ones, but instead they criticize and compare and always find you lacking.
Religious life falls into these pitfalls as well - Am I serving enough? Giving enough? Praying enough? Believing enough?
The Church as a whole falls into these pitfalls too - Are we defined by our building? Are we defined by our average weekly attendance or membership or how much the offering was this week? Are we defined by what the church down the street is doing?
And when we get into these all too common ruts of thinking - it will always boil down to, ”Am I enough?” And in the comparison game, we always lose.
And so, I would invite all of us today - you and me, as individuals, and us as a church community - to take a deep breath, say no to the comparison game, and remember that our identity and our enoughness is found first and foremost in God, the God of Grace and Love and the God who offers us love and acceptance - before any of us accomplish a single dang thing.
And this is one of the questions the people of faith are wrestling with in Micah - ”What does the Lord require of us?” ”What do I need to do or achieve to be right with God?”
In this passage today they are using extreme hyperbole. They start with a modest offering: a burnt offering, a calf - and then it drastically increases: thousands of rams, then ten thousand rivers of oil - or even a beloved first born. It sounds abhorrent to our modern ears but there were many ancient cultures that practiced child sacrifice. We might hear it reflected in our modern understanding of what we give to God:
”What do you require of me, God? Weekly worship in a church? To serve on every committee in the church? To give ten percent? To give more than ten percent? To make sure that every member of our family is in worship with us? To single handedly launch ten new programs to draw new people in? 100 programs? 1000? My kidney?” And so on and so forth.
These questions raised in Micah echo throughout Scripture. As Christians and adherents to the New Testament we believe that God sent Jesus so that might be saved through his grace, justified, and made right with God. Paul echoes this sentiment throughout his letters that there is nothing we can ever possibly do to earn God’s love and forgiveness - Christ has already done that for us! We are already loved and grace is freely given. We could never do enough, never offer up enough, never sacrifice enough to make it so that we have earned our salvation, made ourselves worthy of God’s love. We will always fall short - we will always be comparing and losing. We will also think we could be doing more, producing more, being more. But that’s the Good News! God’s grace is offered to us - unmerited, undeserved - and yet - still given. This is our Scripture from Ephesians today: ”For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.”
Being made ”right” in God's eyes, salvation - is a gift from God - because ”we are what he has made us” - the Greek here implies craftsmanship - we were formed, created by God's hands, with purpose and care, beautiful masterpieces, that are inherently worthy of love before we do a single thing - because we were created by God, children of God.
Neither Micah nor Ephesians stops there though. Micah goes on to say that the Lord does require things of us - not a requirement for love - but a requirement for a faithful life - to love justice, do merciful kindness, and to walk humbly with God. Ephesians says we were created for good works. It echoes James where it says faith without works is dead.
Now - this is an AND - not a but.
Our identity is found in God. We are offered love through our identity as God's children. We do not earn salvation, we don't have to achieve or measure up to a certain standard in order to have a relationship with God.
AND -
That relationship with God, inherently, will cause us to respond to God's love and the gift of salvation with how we live our lives.
Not a BUT - Not a ”You are loved but only if you perform faith and works.” It's AND. ”You are loved AND we respond to that love with how we live and what we do.”
It may seem like semantics but it's not - this tiny shift in perspective makes all the difference. The question is now not ”Am I enough?” but ”I am enough - how do I faithfully respond to this gift?” It changes “How do I prove myself?” to “Who is God shaping me to become, and what faithful work flows from that identity?”
In Wesleyan theology we call this sanctification. The gift of salvation is not a one and done deal where God offers us pardon and then is done offering us grace. Even after we've found and accepted our identity as beloved children of God in need of God's grace, God continually offers us grace so that we may be sanctified. To be sanctified means to be made holy - holiness is not being better than everyone else or perfection - holiness is defined by a growing love of God and neighbor. That growing love of God and neighbor is shown by how we act towards God and our neighbor, we we serve, how we love in thought, word, and deed. This journey of love sounds so nice and fluffy - but the work of love is hard, we need the gift of God's grace every day - to root ourselves in God's identity of us and to shape us so that we don't measure ourselves by what we do - or what we have- but we are called to act based on the gifts of God's grace in our lives - to love justice, to do merciful kindness, and to walk humbly with our God and one another. And, generosity - of our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness - is a sanctifying force in our lives. Freely giving helps us hold less tightly to the things of this world that would define us outside of God’s grace to us. When we give - to God and one another - we are letting love be the definition.
Every week in this sermon series I've been encouraging you to spend time every day of the week in reflection - while brushing your teeth or another brief moment of your every day routine.
Our first week I asked you to name ”one to three gifts you received but did not create: a relationship, ability, opportunity, moment of grace or mercy, or an experience of belonging.” Take a moment to reflect on the day, the week, or even your whole life and name them - and then ask yourself, in light of those gifts, “what is my next faithful response?”
Our second week I asked if there is someone in your life - in your family, your church, your wider community - who you think is feeling lonely, isolated, or disconnected? I invited you to take one step closer to them that week - whatever that looks like.
And then - consider how your prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness are being shared to form belonging and connection within the body of Christ. Choose one of them to focus on and take a further step with.
Continue to ponder these things. And, for this week's reflection: ”Name the voices shaping your identity. Which voices produce comparison, fear, or striving? Which voices remind you that you are loved, gifted, and called?” And, in light of those voices that affirm that you are loved, gifted, and called - ”Choose one small practice of justice, kindness, humility, service, or financial generosity that aligns daily life with received identity” and carry it out. It's the same question as the last two weeks really - What's the next faithful response? How can I respond through sharing prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness? How do we respond to our identities in Christ?
Because imagine what life would be like if you, if me, if we, weren't constantly plagued with questions of if we are enough, if we're doing enough, if we're worthy, if we're measuring up. Imagine a congregation where we all let go of the comparison game - and instead we were simply faithful to who we are and faithful to what God has given us. Imagine a congregation where we didn't feel constant pressure to be or do enough - but our acts of generosity, of good works, flew out of having a purpose that aligns with our identity as beloved children. Imagine a congregation where generosity wasn't seen as transactional but a natural outpouring of the grace we've received.
So allow me to end today with this: God has gifted you with grace and an identity as a beloved child of God. You are not what you own, what you accomplish, or what others think of you. You are who God created you to be - a masterpiece - and so, we respond with purpose, with generosity, with love for God and neighbor that flows out of us through generous actions.
May it be so. Amen.
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